


Forgotten Forests and Magnified Myths

by Sleepless_in_Starbucks



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, It's a good ending, Logan's a nerd, M/M, Magic, Multi, Open Ending, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Tim the potted plant, also it's very gay, because gay is yay, because i can't resist, but it does happen a lot, but with like a lot of references to our world, dragon!AU, just not definte, like it's not bad, like it's okay no one gets hurt, mysterious stones, remile parents, to be introduced much later, tw: poison drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-01 21:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 47,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19185907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sleepless_in_Starbucks/pseuds/Sleepless_in_Starbucks
Summary: Prompt from the lovely Hawthorn:Logan lives in a kingdom where magic is rare. It's dilute in the blood of humans compared to olden days, granting the occasional ability but nothing more. Perhaps the ability to breathe underwater, or move silently, or plant a belief in someone's mind.Or perhaps the ability to talk to dragons.The prompt goes on a bit more but that'd be spoiling ;)





	1. The Guardian Dragon

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Briefly getting lost, scary dragon description?, getting injured (only mild scratches)  
> Tell me if there's anything else I should add!

Logan Palevale didn't care at all about magic.

Sure, scientifically, it was cool to try and determine what traits in people could predict if they possessed magical abilities or measure out probabilities of it. Of course Logan never put much stock in that, simply because his research found that people born with uniquely coloured hair were more likely to have traces of magic, and yet despite his midnight blue hair colour he was quite magicless.

But outside of that, magic was, to Logan, magic. He believed some people made too much fuss over it. So what if some people could bring dead flowers back to life, or predict what a coin flip would produce? They were mostly parlor tricks. Amusing, but just that. Logan much preferred to focus on doing something substantial.

That's what had led him to wandering through the forest, looking for a very specific blue-green flower he had strong reason to believe could help repel the moth-bears. They were beginning to get insufferable in his village, and setting up giant lights for them to claw at would only work so long.

So far, however, he hadn't found much other than the common flora and fauna. Getting fairly desperate, Logan had ignored the white rock line that warned of more olden beasts beyond.

The sun outside the forest was beginning to set, and the trees were casting shadows that twisted into monstrous shapes, but Logan was blind to all of it. He thought he saw a flash of the blue-green colours he was searching for.

And he was right! Logan resisted the immature urge to pump his fist as he hurried to the small patch of the flowers, carefully plucking them and putting them into his satchel.

Lost in his gathering, he didn't notice one of the shadows behind him move.

After a few minutes, satchel full, Logan got up and turned around. He'd head home now, just had to go opposite the sun.

The sun. The sun which had set while he was gathering. Maybe the darkness would have caught his attention, but as Logan realized now, the trees themselves were glowing a faint pink-orange, mimicking dusk colours and tricking him into believing he had more time.

Logan twirled around, hoping to see something to guide him back, but the trees were all the same and the flowers grew from the cracks in stone, leaving him with no footprints to guide him.

Logan pulled out his compass, though he feared that deep within the woods, where the magic was thick and clogged the air in a way humans couldn't understand, it wouldn't work.

He was right. The thin black arrow was pointing at him, regardless of how he turned it. It wouldn't be much help getting him out of here. And without knowing the direction, his map would also be useless.

Logan smacked his head. Extra useless considering the map stopped at the white circle. He couldn't even try to find his position!

"Now would be a really bad time to panic." Logan said, despite knowing he was already beginning to panic. Logan did not get scared, of course, but the idea of being trapped in the center of the woods... where creatures who should be dead could survive... creatures some legends told were slaughtered by humans and reborn with a taste for mortal blood…

Okay, maybe Logan was a little scared.

Clutching his satchel, Logan decided to just start walking in one direction. Even if he could just get to the white circle, if he could escape whatever lurked here, he'd be able to camp out til morning in the normal woods.

Logan carefully walked across the stony ground, happy that it made no sound. A wind blew through, rustling the glowing leaves so that it almost sounded like there was singing echoing around him.

He hesitated at the edge of the stone, where it reconnected with leaf-covered ground. The leaves would crackle beneath his step, he knew that. Staying on the stone would be quiet. But staying on the stone would leave him in the center of the white circle.

Taking a deep breath, Logan carefully stepped onto the forest floor. There was a slight crackle, but nothing else afterwards, and Logan took it as a go ahead to take another step.

The second step was his fatal flaw.

The leaves crackled again, but after they quieted down, there was another noise. Logan froze, breath caught in his throat, as he identified the sound as a low growl.

He glanced around him worriedly, but the tree lights seemed to have dimmed, and all he saw outside the tiny circle of light was shadows. The growl continued dangerously, bouncing around the forest leaving Logan unable to trace its source.

The growl paused for a moment, only to be replaced by a short snarl Logan could have sworn came from behind him. He swiveled around, finding the space behind him as empty as it had been a minute ago.

Trying to catch his breath, Logan turned around again. Maybe if he just fast walked-

The thought (along with his breath) died when he found standing only three feet before him a massive creature.

The thing towered over him, its jaw roughly a Logan and a half above him. Its skin was rough and scaly, coloured a mix of greens and browns over almost all its skin. Across the right side of its face was a patch of bright yellow scales that covered its right eye and ran halfway down his neck.

Logan was almost a hundred percent sure he was going to faint when the creature opened its mouth, letting out another low growl. Gleaming, pointed teeth that reflected what little light the trees were still letting off met Logan.

He was  _ definitely _ going to faint.

...Except if he fainted, he'd probably get eaten and if he got eaten then he'd never see the end result of his week long study on if he could actually turn rocks into diamonds using chemicals.

So fainting was not an option.

What other options were there when a creature who probably saw Logan as a toothpick was literally right in front of him and his heart was stopped from fear?

Well of course the nerd who always skipped out on any physical ed class he was assigned was going to  _ run. _ It was the  _ perfect _ plan.

Dodging to the side of the creature, Logan focused only on the horizon as he ran as fast as he could possibly go. His satchel was bumping against his hip as he went, the clasp the only reason the flowers within weren't flying away. Logan briefly considered taking his glasses off, to ensure they wouldn't fall off and force him to go back, but Logan soon realized his hands were needed in the task of blocking his torso from slamming into every other tree.

Logan was really, really bad at running and not hitting things.

Eventually he registered the white stone line, but even after he leapt over it, he continue dashing out of the woods. By the time he burst out of the woods completely, he found himself on the outskirts of his town.

Taking a quick glance around, Logan almost thought he could laugh when he saw he was only a stone's throw from his family's group of houses. Half-walking, half-dragging his feet through the dirt, Logan headed towards them.

The little group of buildings, marked as being part of a group by a neat white fence surrounding them, were built from the wood of the forest the buildings sat next to. There were three- the biggest one was the family house, the low to ground one with a basement door was the alchemy lab, and the third small and newer one was Logan's little corner of the world.

After graduating school, Logan had wanted to have his own place, but yet couldn't bear to part with the incredibly stocked and maintained alchemy of his Dads. The compromise they reached was to build Logan his own tiny dwelling on the land.

For now, however, Logan let himself in the gate and opened the door to the family house. Dropping his satchel at the door, he took the minimum steps required to flop into an armchair in the living room, staring at the ceiling his Papa had covered in painted wooden stars.

Logan heard footsteps coming down another hallway, most likely his Papa's from how heavy and cheerful they were (Logan hadn't realized it was possible to have a cheerful walk. Once he was old enough to care, he realized that somehow his Papa did).

"Were those my Lo-Lo's steps I heard?" Papa's voice boomed out. He continued jokingly, "I thought we gave you your own place, bud!"

The footsteps came to a stop at the edge of the living room, and the light chuckling did too. Logan moved his gaze from the ceiling to the three degree psychology and psychic-ology holder with a floral pink tie, who was staring at Logan, concerned.

"Uh, Logan, are you okay?" He asked hesitantly, taking in the cuts across Logan's shirt and pants and his general exhaustion.

Logan knew his Papa would want an answer as to why he looked like he had gone a few rounds with a tree and lost them all. He was prepared for this. All he had to do was explain he got lost, accidentally run into a... something... and reacted perhaps more frightened than he should have.

Not that hard to articulate that.

Which is exactly why Logan opened his mouth and no sound came out. He closed it, thought about trying again, and then just went back to staring at the ceiling.

Dammit he was  _ tired _ and maybe still a little freaked out by the creature he had seen.

Papa, after receiving no response, moved into the living room and set himself down on the chair next to Logan. "You were going into the woods for flowers, right?"

Logan nodded.

"Did you run into a moth-bear, or...?"

Logan frowned at the ceiling. "I ran into something."

Papa waited a moment before pressing on. "And that something was...?"

Logan tilted his head to look at Papa, the golden flecks shining with worry in his brown eyes. "I've been thinking it over, and I think it was a dragon." He said much too calmly considering internally his instincts were still screaming bloody murder that there was a  _ dragon _ in the forest right outside of his house.

Papa seemed to pick up on the internal worry and carefully placed a hand on Logan's shoulder. Logan leaned slightly into the touch, the pain from his bruises ebbing every slightly. "Logan, you and I both know dragons don't live in the forest."

"I may have gone out of bounds." Logan said. Past the white circle was an area that no one counted as the forest, since no one went in there.

At that reveal, Emile smiled warmly. "So... what you're telling me is that my good scholarly boy broke the rules?"

" _ Papa. _ "

"Okay, okay, the dragon is the pressing issue." Papa said, letting up, though the smile remained on his face.

Before Logan could do much more but frown at his Papa's amusement at his dilemma, the door burst open and slammed shut. Striding into the room as if he was wasting time was his Dad. He was rubbing at his eyes, his tinted alchemy goggles that met almost  _ no _ regulations (they didn't even cup around his eyes! The chemicals that could get in!) propped up on his head.

"Em, sweetheart, please tell me you haven't started baking yet. I think I accidentally replaced the sugar with my crystalized argon-" He stopped when he saw what was going on.

With a sigh, he plopped himself down on the chair next to Papa (the chair was not made for two people but with Dad half on the arm and half on Papa's lap it seemed to work out). "I leave y'all alone for a few hours and I come back to this? Gurls, I'm going to have to start monitoring you twenty-four/seven at this rate. What's up?"

"Lo-Lo broke the rules." Papa said, sing-song.

Suddenly Dad had a shit-eating grin on his face while Papa explained what he knew and Logan knew he would  _ never _ live this down.

"Well, a dragon, eh?" Dad teased. "Did you ask it if its scales were slimy or not?"

"Dad, you and I both know that the myths ascertain dragons and humans can't talk to each other." Logan replied.

"So... you are curious whether or not it has slimy scales?"

"They looked pretty smooth and clean to me." Logan responded. "I mean I guess I could be wrong, I ran pretty quickly after seeing it, but they were mossy like, and slime wouldn't help it blend in with the moss, not to mention they held a slight gleam that didn't seem refracted by-"

He stopped when he realized both his parents were smiling even wider.

"You took all that in as you fled from the dragon?" Dad asked.

"...I suppose..."

"Sweetie, I hate to downplay your terror, but I mean,  _ you're such a nerd. _ "

Papa elbowed Dad's ribs while he tried to defend himself with, "Don't tell me I'm wrong! He  _ soooo _ takes after you in that regard."

"That is not the point right now!" Papa responded. "Right now we are focused on Logan!" he turned back to Logan. "So, what did the dragon look like?"

"You just want to see how much of the myths are true, Mr. I-own-fifty-fairybooks."

Logan rolled his eyes. "It didn't really match any fairytale exactly. If I had to say one it was closest to... Loch Ness."

"Ohhhhhhh." Papa said, immediately proving his husband's point. "Green and brown scales, mossy beard, horns that always brim with the lake from which it was born?"

Logan shook his hand in the 'so-so' gesture. "Green and brown, yes. No beard, though, and I don't think it had horns that spilled with its birth lake. It did have some odd yellow patch of scales over his right eye, though..."

"That sounds familiar." Papa said, glancing down the hall that lead to his library of psychology and fairytale books. "It might be in one of my books. I could check-"

"But not tonight." Dad cut in, redirecting Papa's gaze to the eternal sundial on the wall (trapping sunlight had been a feat that took Dad three years. Logan was sure they must be an easier well to accurately keep track of the time, but there was a beauty in the shifting yet invisible sun that kept the sundial going even at night). It was currently reading ten pm.

"But Remyyyyyyy."

"No buts, Em. Last time I let you stay up late you tried to fly." Dad matched. "Using a blanket as, as you called it, a magic flight cape."

"I had a helmet on." Papa responded, pouting. "And, in my defense, at that time had had an entire cake." Dad raised an eyebrow. "And I was left unsupervised."

"I had turned my back for ten minutes, Em. Your nighttime privileges are currently and possibly indefinitely revoked."

Papa seemed very ready to protest more, but by then Dad had gotten up and picked Papa up with him. "To bed we go."

"But I don't wanna go to bed." Logan chuckled at how childish Papa sounded.

Dad kissed his forehead. "Too bad, hun." He stopped in the hallway for a second to turn back to Logan. "I just finished with some new med vials if you want something for your cuts, sweetie. I am sorry you got so frightened by the dragon, even if your nerd brain was still active the entire time." Dad winked at him before continuing down the hall. "Sleep well!"

Logan shook his head tiredly as Dad wandered off before he got up and headed back outside. He went directly to his house, stopping at the door to glance at the woods. Without the magical glowing trees, it was as dark as the rest of the night.

The thought of the mossy yellow dragon padding about, deep within the forest's reaches came with a chilling breeze. Logan shivered slightly before slipping into his house.

It wasn't more than a small kitchen, dining area, bathroom, study, and bedroom, and Logan made his way to the bedroom quickly. Changing out of his torn up clothes and into pajamas, he practically faceplanted into the bed and fell asleep in dreams of deep forests and lurking creatures…


	2. The Chapter I Forgot to Put Any Drama in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a slice of life at the Palevale household. Pretty dramaless, unless you consider Remy and Logan fighting over coffee to be very suspenseful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: A swear word  
> Tell me if there's anything else I should add!

When Logan was ungracefully pulled back into the world of the awake via the sun beaming through the blinds he forgot to close the night before, he was sorely tempted to Fight the Sun and go back to bed.

Upon getting out of bed, however, Logan realized that not only could he not Fight the Sun (yet), he was now even more awake.

"No more sleep time for me." He muttered before stopping and squinting at his feet. "I'm grammaring great, too." He continued as if he wasn't the only person in the room. "I need coffee."

After getting changed, Logan grabbed an apple from his kitchen and made his way to the laboratory. Aside from the fact that that was where his Dad hogged the coffee, he had forgotten to use any med vials the day before, and the dozens of cuts and bruises he had were making him regret it.

Wandering in, he found Dad sitting on a table in the back, very carefully dipping a piece of wood into a pink solution.

"Up already?" Logan asked, prompting Dad to pull the wood away from the mixture before actually putting it in.

"For someone so fond of staying up late, your Papa is an excessive morning person." Dad replied. "Last I saw him, he was in the process of loudly singing and cooking up pancakes. If you'd like a breakfast more fun than a big tree seed, I'd see him."

"Once more, Dad, seeds are in the apple, they aren't  _ the _ apple."

Dad waved his hand dismissively. "You youngins and your newfangled ideas on what is and isn't a seed."

Logan rolled his eyes while Dad continued, "So, whatcha here for?"

"Coffee, mostly, though I wouldn't mind a med vial or two." Logan responded.

"Well, you're going to have to fight me for the coffee. The med vials are in the cabinet, though."

"Dad, you spend half your time making coffee. I think you can spare a little." Logan replied while he pulled out two med vials.

"But why should I have to?" Dad matched, watching while Logan quickly chugged down the neon coloured liquids.

"Because I asked nicely and I'm in pain." Logan deadpanned.

"Not my fault you skipped every class of Damsels, Damoiseaus, and Dams in Distress." Dad replied, though he was also moving to another table. "Do you want bitter but strong stuff, sweet but weak stuff, or the stuff I invented last night and may be poisonous?"

"Strong." Logan replied, happily accepting the mug filled with dark brown liquid Remy handed him in response. "Maybe I'll check out those pancakes..."

Remy grinned. "Just be prepared to be slammed with fairytale lore, sweetie. If you get tired of it... well, you've lived with your Papa too long to duck out now, so I guess just put up with it."

Dad proved to be right on both the pancake and the fairytale fronts, with him walking into the kitchen to find a plate already set for him with a heavy leather tome propped up in the center of the table.

Logan studied the golden letters that declared it to be the twenty-second volume in the fairytale collection, this being the dragon issue, while he munched on his pancakes.

He didn't even think about touching it until he was finished, his food put away, and his hands thoroughly washed and dried. Both he and his Papa had very strict rules on caring for books, and getting any food on them was a huge no-no. They even had a list of rules in the library that existed one hundred percent because Remy once spilled some coffee on a book and disappeared for a week, hiding from Papa’s wrath.

Upon opening the book, he found the attached bookmark was slipped in it. He quickly flipped to that page, finding a picture extremely similar to the dragon he had run into the day before. The only difference was that the picture had no yellow scales over the side of its face.

Logan turned away from the picture to read the description.

**Guardian Dragon**

_ Guardian dragons are some of the most fearsome dragons, though they only attack when strongly provoked. While their appearance varies by their habitat, the majority of them live in forests and as such bear a mossy or plant like look. At their largest, they can often tower over a tall human by twice their size. _

_ Guardian dragons only breath fire if they live in a fiery climate. Otherwise, they can blow extremely high speed winds, sometimes even fast enough to create tornadoes. _

_ While Guardian dragons have wings, their size and dedication to keeping their home safe often keep them on the ground, using their wings primarily to inspire fear in larger enemies. The extendable and retractable scales on their backs and tails serve the same basic function, to inspire fear in their enemies, but also have a more offensive use. _

_ Guardian dragons also have the unique ability to regrow scales in seriously damaged areas of their bodies. These scales rarely match the rest of the dragon's scales, and are often permanent. If these scales are damaged or torn off, it is unlikely the dragon will ever be able to heal that area of skin again. _

Upon finishing the final paragraph, Logan turned his gaze back to the drawn picture of the stereotypical Guardian Dragon. He lightly ran his finger over the right eye of the drawing, wondering what the dragon he had seen could have done, or could have had done to it, to prompt the growth of the yellow clashing scales.

Closing the book, Logan moved out of the kitchen and headed towards Papa's library. The man himself was there, singing to himself while he worked at his desk in the corner. The rest of the room was completely covered in bookshelves, all of them painted over with rainbows, dragons, unicorns- any mythical creature you could name, it was there. Logan had to take a second, as always, to appreciate the artwork. Papa’s work was fantastically realistic enough to almost look like they were moving. When Logan was younger, he actually thought they did.

Each wall of the room had a theme, with the one the door was in holding all his psychology books, one wall for fantasy stories, and one for handed down myths.

The one he wandered to was the same one that Papa's desk was pressed to. It was a thicker, nicer bookshelf for Papa's limited edition tomes. It was more appropriate to just call it his fairytale shelf, however, as that was all it held. While Papa was still hunting down a book or two, his dedication to the Fairytale Collection had paid off. He had beautifully intricate glass cases for each of them, reflecting images to relate to each theme.

As Logan carefully placed the dragon book back in its case, set with a glittering image of tiny rainbow dragons fluttering about, Papa looked up from his papers.

"So, is the Guardian Dragon your dragon?" He asked.

Logan nodded. "All the details seem to match. For a fairytale book, it's surprisingly accurate."

Papa wiggled his eyebrows. "Now that you've seen one, Lo-Lo, I think it's now a scientific guide book."

"Maybe for some of the dragons, Papa, but I find it doubtful that Treasure dragons really exist." Logan replied.

"My son, don't hurt me like this!" Papa responded dramatically. Treasure dragons had always been a favorite of his, right alongside the Flower dragons. Logan was of the firm belief they were a silly and impossible species.

Logan mostly suppressed a grin as he rolled his eyes and headed back for the door. "I'm going to start working on my moth-bear repellant, so I'll be in the lab with Dad if you need me."

"One thing before you go." Logan stopped in the doorway to turn back towards Papa, who had swiveled around to face Logan. "Any plans to go play with your new dragon friend?"

"I think I've had enough time past the white stones, thanks." Logan replied, beginning to walk away. "I'm not exactly sure how'd 'playing' with a dragon would go, anyhow."

"I'm sure it'd be fangtastic!" Papa responded as he turned back to his work.

Logan was careful to not chuckle until he was out of earshot. If Papa caught you so much as half-grinning at one of his puns, you were likely to get flooded with another fifty of them.

He especially didn't need dragon puns. He had made his mistake for stepping over the white line, and he had paid the price with a near-death experience. Regardless of how cool it might be to study the Guardian dragon, he had a sneaking suspicion the dragon would rather eat him than let him study it.

Besides, Logan had no reason to go into the deep forest anyways. Avoiding the dragon would be the easiest thing for him. As long as he kept to the forest as he had his entire life, he would be fine.

Too bad the Baader-Meinhof effect was a bitch.


	3. A New Fighter Has Appeared!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan somehow ends up back in the deep forest, despite swearing never to go back.  
> He's too curious of a nerd for his own good, really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Poison eating (no serious effects but it does occur), minor tunny ache, a few swears  
> If I need to add anything else, just tell me!

It had been a week and a half since Logan had run into the Guardian dragon. Though neither of his parental units were ready to stop randomly bringing the incident up, it was mostly an ignored event for Logan himself.

He had finished his moth-bear repellant and found it worked admirably. His diamond experiment had failed to produce diamonds in physical form, but he was fairly certain the silvery liquid he had gotten instead was liquid diamond. It was currently hanging in his house, a tiny dab of capture sunlight slipped inside it, creating a dappled, shiny effect.

It was in his house for the sake his Dad had tried to drink some of it, and his Papa would turn every night into dance night if he realized they had access to such a sparkly light source.

He was now busy in the lab with the new project of working on better lighting for the village. Fall was sneaking up on them fast, and with it came the quicker setting sun. In past years that had been a minor issue, but with the majority of wild berries blooming later this year, the villagers would need to collect later into the fall days.

Better lighting would not only make this job much easier, it would also give them warning against any creatures that might sneak up during their work, such as moth-bears.

Or dragons.

He was, however, blanking on ideas.

He had briefly entertained the idea of using capture sunlight, but that was quickly blown out of the water. The process to capture even a vial of the stuff took two years, assuming you knew what you were doing. The little sliver he had used in the liquid diamond had been stolen from the sundial. Even if he distributed all of the sundial's capture sun, it would only light up one or two berry patches.

The traditional method of using candles and lanterns would work, of course, but the amount of wax and wicks it would use up was in the extreme ranges, especially given their resident candlemaker had recently passed, forcing them to import all the materials.

He had also turned to chemical solutions for the lighting. After a few sips from Dad, it was determined they were all poisonous. Given how they lit up, it was an awful idea to use them with berry picking- there were too many children there.

And too many adults like Dad as well.

Currently, Logan was scribbling in his notebook, trying to formulate a nontoxic light substance. Dad was laying across the table opposite of him, excessively groaning and clutching his stomach.

"Dad, the wolfsbane was boiled. There wasn't even that much of it in the light." Logan said after a particularly dramatic groan.

Dad tilted his head to face Logan. "I've been fatally wounded, sweetie. It's time I tell you where my will is hidden."

"Papa's the only one with permission to write the will after you tried to give everything to coffee."

"That's because coffee deserves it."

" _ You _ were the one who thought the monkshood would be cancelled out by the other elements, not me. I refuse to take the blame." Logan looked over his glasses, a move his Dad himself had pulled too many times before. "You were also the one who offered to drink the possibly poisonous substances."

Dad sighed and sat up. "Well I can't let the nerd of the family die. 'Cause if we're being honest, you're the only one left with any brain matter between the three of us."

Logan smirked. "You know it."

"Speaking of brain matter, have you put it to good use?"

At this, Logan frowned. "Nope. I don't understand why the creation of light is such a toxic process."

"Getting  _ burned _ by the failure, are we?"

" **_Dad._ ** "

"If Em can make puns, why can't I!?" Dad protested immediately.

"Because if both my parents start punning full-time, I'm going to go insane."

"Well if you can't en _ light _ en me with the situation, insanity may be the only path you have left." Dad responded with a grin.

Logan let out a long sigh before saying, "Well, if we can't create light, and we can't use the sun, the only reasonable path left would be to find another already existing light source, preferably an non-depletable one."

Dad raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, that would be the best case scenario. Got some Tinkerbells to stuff in jars? Or another equally magical substance?"

Logan opened his mouth, perfectly ready to explain that, no, light was really hard to make  _ and _ find- looks like it would have to be candles.

Before he realized that while it might not be perfect, he did know where to find a substance like that.

"Yes?" Dad prompted, still waiting for Logan to answer.

"...I think I'm going to have to go back to the deep forest..."

Dad crossed his arms. "You're just that desperate to see if you were right about the scales?"

Logan pulled an unamused face before continuing, "When I was in there, I didn't realize the sun had set because the trees were glowing. If I could figure out which part of the trees were glowing, find a way to transport them here and extract the chemicals or replant them or something, that could work for the berry fields. Hopefully without being poisonous."

"It could work, yeah." Dad conceded after a moment. "But I've never seen those trees before, and I've been all over the forest. I know you have too. You'd have to go back into the deep forest to get them."

"I know." Logan replied.

"And you kinda really hated the first and last time you were in their, sweetie." Dad said, shifting awkwardly in place. "Buying an excessive amount of candles isn't that big of a problem. You don't need to go back in."

"It's fine, Dad. As long as I climb high enough in the tree I'm sure I'll be fine." At Dad's continued concerned look, Logan added, "I'll stay near the white circle too, I promise."

"Me or Papa could go with you..."

"Dad, it's fine, really." Logan smirked. "Besides, you guys are  _ old. _ "

Dad managed to look mildly affronted. "When did my nerd become such a bitch?"

"I inherited it from my Dad."

Dad chuckled. "Touché."

The chuckling died down after a minute and Dad started seriously, "If you're okay with going back into the deep forest, I'm not going to stop you. I doubt such an 'old man' could. Just... don't feel like you  _ have _ to do it, okay? Candles have gotten us through before and they can again."

Logan smiled. "I promise, I really will be fine. Besides, now I've got a chance to find out if the Guardian dragon is truly slimy or not, right?"

"I guess ya do, sweetie." Dad responded before he moved towards the failed light attempts. "I'll clean up here so you can get going soon as possible. Make sure you tell Papa first, though. I'm not sure if he'll hold you back or eagerly push you towards the dragons but he probably wants to know."

Turns out Papa was torn between the two options.

His immediate reaction was to tell Logan going was fine, his choice, as long as it was okay,  _ have fun with the dragon they make great playmates _

Logan had half a foot out the door before Papa pounce-hugged him and for a solid three and a half minutes refused to do anything outside of hug him. Logan knew it was his way of showing both love and worry, as well as getting a hug.

Standing now at the white stone line, Logan wished he had submitted longer to the hug and not come back to the deep forest.

There was an odd power to the line Logan had never understood, even years ago when he stumbled too close to it (but didn't cross). It didn't help that there weren't even myths to explain why it was there, or why the olden creatures stayed behind it.

Logan waited before it, eyes searching for any movement past the line, but the deep forest was eerily silent and empty. The sun was nearing its setting point and the trees were just very faintly beginning to glow.

Taking a deep breath, Logan quickly darted across the line, barely touching the ground before he had attached himself to a tree. He pulled himself up as quickly as he could with what few branches were near the bottom. As he actually got off the ground, the branches grew more frequent, but he was still careful to not break any and give away his position.

After a few minutes, Logan checked his height and determined it to be roughly four Logans from the ground. It made him slightly dizzy to see the distance, but from here he was fairly certain that, at the very least, the Guardian dragon would have trouble reaching him. As long as he could manage to get out of the tree and run, he'd be fine.

Situating himself comfortably on one of the branches, Logan ruffled through his satchel and pulled out a magnifying glass. He leaned over the leaves, which he could now identify as the part of the tree that was glowing, and carefully inspected the veins.

He wanted to say that the glowing substance was traveling through the veins, but close inspection just found the entire leaf fully glowing.

He sat back up, tapping the glass against his chin as he thought. Intrigued, he moved to the bark and carefully pulled up a part of it. As he suspected, the surface underneath the bark was also glowing.

_ "What the fuggggggg" _ Logan muttered, trying to put logic to the magic trees in the magic part of the forest.

He decided that if he could just take a few leaves back home, he and Dad could probably figure out... something. If nothing else, he might be able to plant them and hope they'd regrow as magical outside as they were here.

He went back into his satchel, looking for his shears. Before he could pull them out, however, he noticed something move underneath him.

Pulling his feet up so that he could fully crouch on the branch, Logan carefully pulled his hand back out of the bag and quietly closed it. Beneath him, a mass of black and purple scales silently moved across the ground.

Logan pressed himself to the trunk as he carefully followed the new dragon's path.

This dragon also seemed pretty large, though clearly smaller than the Guardian. Logan's ability to guess its height was thrown off by how it walked low to the ground, its head moving to the side with every step, as if it was on patrol.

It's scales were slightly differing variations of purple, though they were all mostly dark, with black outlining each individual scale. From his vantage point, Logan couldn't see its face or underside. He leaned a bit more forward, hoping to get another detail or two.

He wasn't prepared, however, for the branch to crack as he did so. The dragon's head immediately whipped around and Logan just barely ducked behind the trunk in time.

With just barely half an eye peeking out, Logan watched as the dragon's head swiveled around, searching for danger. He also noticed the black outlines on the scales were slowly spilling into each scale, the purple rapidly being replaced by pure black.

As Logan watched, the blackness completely overtook the purple. In a sudden flash of purple and black, the dragon disappeared, leaving behind only a long partly coiled tube of smoke.

The tube of smoke immediately began to unwrap itself and head deeper into the forest, twisting around the glowing trees with an odd grace.

Logan waited in the tree for a few minutes after the last of the smoke disappeared. He slid out of the tree, forgetting to grab a handful of the leaves, and hurried past the stone line.

This time, however, he paused to turn around and look back. The deep forest was once more silent and empty, but the memory of the tall and threatening Guardian dragon mixed with the silent smoke one seemed to fill it.

Logan glanced at the white stone line. If there were two dragons, how many more were there? How many unique dragons who could do things like turn to smoke?

Logan slowly pulled himself from the line, not wanting to worry his parents by staying out in the darkness too late.

Of course, tomorrow he'd have to come back for some flowing leaves... and the trees did seem to make good observation posts…

And if he didn't find out if that Guardian dragon was slimy or not his Dads would never let him hear the end of it…

Guess he  _ had _ to come back...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tumblr: https://sleepless-in-starbucks.tumblr.com/


	4. Smoke and Sky Dragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A description of the dragon from last time, yet another dragon, and some shameless Remile fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Swearing, food mentions  
> If there's anything else I need to ask just let me know!

**Smoke Dragon**

_ Also known as the Moon dragon, Smoke dragons are an elusive species. Their scales are all dark shades of purple, with the exception of their undersides. The underside is made of reflective scales that have carefully evolved to reflect the light around it to make it appear as though it is not there; the scales mimic the sky. _

_ Their wings are incredibly strong and completely transparent. Working with their underside scales, they can, theoretically, travel immense distances without being spotted. _

_ Often considered the physical highlight of the Smoke dragon is their claws, teeth, and horns, which are all made of a material as strong as bone and bearing an appearance nearly identical to pure silver. _

_ These traits, along with its unique ability to turn into smoke when in danger, are most likely the driving force behind the Smoke dragon's second name, Moon dragon. Due to the silvery claws often being the only thing visible when the Smoke dragon was in flight, many ancient peoples are believed to have seen the Smoke dragons as Moon guardians, entrusted with some of its light. The Smoke dragon's dark appearance and relatively secretive mannerisms would have only helped to fuel these beliefs. _

Logan sighed after re-reading the passage on the Smoke dragon for possibly the hundredth time and closed his notebook. His Papa, of course, would never let him take his precious into the woods, but he would let Logan spend a few days on copying it into his notebook to reference.

Which, Logan considered, was an unfair way of mentally phrasing it given that Papa had done all the drawings for him. The fact that half of the dragons had ": )" faces instead of the properly detailed ones was a small sacrifice for Logan not having to try and draw them.

Of all the things he got from his Papa, drawing was  _ not _ one of them.

Logan peered out of the tree he was stationed in, not surprised to still find the ground beneath it unmoved.

It had been two weeks since he had spotted the Smoke dragon, roughly three and a half since the Guardian dragon. After completing his copy of the Dragon fairytale book, Logan had been coming out to the deep forest daily, searching for another one of the supposedly mythical creatures.

So far, his search had been pretty fruitless.

He had started on the trees at the border of the white circle, careful not to stray far, but with every passing day that resulted in no dragon sightings he got more and more restless.

It had been at the one week mark he had actually started moving deeper into the forest. He wished it could be as easy as jumping between the branches, especially given how closely together the trees grew, but Logan could never underestimate how, well, wimpy he was when it came to physical exertion.

Of course, if someone had told him climbing rope in PE was going to lead to him being able to properly observe dragons maybe he'd have actually shown up to class.

So, instead of dramatically jumping between the trees, Logan was forced to go to the ground and climb each and every tree from its base every time he wanted to switch spots.

If he ever did see a dragon and found himself in need of moving vantage points he was going to be in trouble, both scientifically and possibly mortally.

~Two Days Later~

Logan was going to  _ really _ have to stop listing out the problems that could occur in his life because at this point,  _ logic be damned, _ he was quite sure that some cruel god was monitoring his every thought just looking for that perfect prank opportunity.

Because while Logan had been chilling in what he estimated to be nine or ten trees away from the white stone line, wondering if he could use all his down time to actually work on tree jumping or perhaps create a system to allow him to move between trees despite his lack of physical prowess, there had been a disturbance on the forest floor. A large one.

One he, from his vantage point,  _ couldn't see the source of. _

From how the other trees and shrubs in the area swayed, it was moving in a different direction from Logan's spot. He highly doubted he'd be able to see much more than the back of the dragon if he stayed put.

Logan knew he should stay put. That was basically his Dads’ only rule to him doing his dragon watches- he was not allowed to get eaten by said dragons. Getting eaten would not be fun and would result in alchemy lab restrictions.

But he had been waiting  _ so _ long, and it had to be safer to be on the forest floor near a dragon and also near the white line then in the trees far away from the white line, right?

Logan carefully ignored his instinct's response of  **_W R O N G_ **

With the same caution he ignored his logical thoughts, Logan made his way down the tree, slowly making sure each branch was not going to snap under his weight. As he neared the ground, he was careful to shimmy down the trunk and settle down on the leaves at its base as quietly as possible.

Once on the ground, he turned back towards the source of the upset. He could just barely see a bright blue tail, flicking between the trees in time with the slight  _ thumps _ that signaled the creature's walking.

Ever so slightly giddy at the thought of seeing another type of dragon, Logan slid his feet across the ground to lessen the sound of leaves crackling and hurried behind the next nearest tree trunk.

He peered out, now able to see the backside of the dragon. He was surprised to see light blue fur poking out between the dragon's scales, brushed down to almost cover the scales themselves. As the dragon flicked its tail again, Logan also observed it had a white underbody.

Logan tried to match the characteristics to the book, but other than the Guardian dragon and the Smoke dragon Logan hadn't focused enough on the others to have them memorized (yet).

Lost in his thoughts, Logan didn't notice as he leaned a bit more forward and crunched a few leaves. In a normal forest, the noise would have been lost in the quiet ruckus of the wild, but along with the fact that dragons were apparently very antisocial, Logan had learned the deep forest was practically dead space. He wasn't even sure if there were creatures other than the dragons living within.

It was beautiful, really, to see such a still ecosystem. And scientifically it was amazing that the trees seemed to be able to survive purely on their own.

However, it did mean even one leave crackling made a sound like a drum beat, and Logan had just the luck to ensure he stepped on his leaf just as the dragon briefly stopped.

Logan realized his mistake when the dragon's steps stopped. Looking up from the leaf he had crushed, he found the dragon turning around much too fast for such a big creature.

Unprepared, Logan didn't have the time to jerk behind the tree trunk fully before it was completely turned around, curious brown eyes staring right at him.

He stilled against the tree trunk in response, clutching the bark like it might save him, and didn't break eye contact with the dragon. He positioned a leg behind him, ready to turn and run the minute the dragon showed signs of becoming violent.

But... it didn't.

Instead, the dragon broke out into what Logan was forced to classify as a 'smile,' showcasing white but stubby teeth (better for chewing, not so much for ripping).

If that wasn't weird enough the fact it followed with  _ talking _ was.

"Oh, a human!" The dragon said in a cheery, upbeat voice. "I haven't seen a human in years! Especially not in these parts!"

Logan didn't respond.

He knew everything known about dragons was from myths, but none of them had ever suggested that they could  _ talk. _ At least this dragon wasn't trying to kill him. Yet.

The dragon faltered for a minute before continuing, "Oh, silly me! It probably sounds like I'm growling to you. Poor humans and your limited language options..."

Okay, so now even the  _ dragon _ was confirming Logan was crazy. Absolutely crazy. All this time studying dragons, and of course the deep woods were just brimming with old magic, fuck maybe it was toxic and now Logan was going to  _ die _ thinking he could  _ speak _ to  **_dragons._ **

The dragon picked up on Logan's unease and took it a different way. "And I'm probably scaring you this big, aren't I? Let me just-"

Logan decided he didn't really want to know what the dragon was going to do. He also didn't want to stay in the toxic magic woods any longer for the given day.

With more calm than a man who could hear dragons speak should have had, Logan turned around and walked away as if he were declining a coffee date.

"Oh, got somewhere to go I see." The dragon said, sounding sad. "Well, goodbye!"

Logan continued his calm walk all the way out of the woods, onto his family's property, and into his house. He autopiloted to his study, sat down at his desk, and then promptly stopped functioning.

He leaned back automatically in the chair, looking at the room's walls idly, his mind solely fixed on the fact he could hear dragons speak and that was  _ not a normal. _

_ Dragons aren't a normal, either _

Logan decided that, despite priding himself on it, his logic was a stupidly fickle thing that only ever seemed to work after events where he could have sorely enjoyed having it around.

Mostly so he didn't do things like walk on the ground near dragons. Or just... walk away from them when they started talking.

Logan rubbed his forehead to fight back the approaching headache. As he did so, he pushed a lock of hair out of his eyes, and his sight was drawn to one of the larger and more professionally done papers on the wall: his studies in relation to the connection between being born with "unnatural" hair colours and being born with magical abilities.

He had done it on different people in the village. Each name was connected to clear lines to note their hair colour (if it had a relation to the strength or form of magic) and their magical ability/abilities.

_ Talyn --> Bright fiery hair --> Ability to appear frightening despite being small Ability to, upon screaming for a prolonged period, shatter glass. The scream requires roughly a minute of warm-up to shatter glass _

_ Dominic --> Purple hair --> No discernable abilities _

_ Thomas --> Rainbow hair --> Ability to shoot harmless beams of rainbow light out of his fingers. Ability to, when excited, accidentally transform his skin into perfect prisms and literally glow with rainbow light _

_ Violet (twin to Hera)--> Hair colour matches whichever flower she at that moment has with her --> Ability to predict small and/or insignificant future events _

_ Hera (twin to Violet) --> Hair colour matches Violet (branch study: see twin hair colour relations) --> Ability to predict small and/or insignificant future events on a slightly bigger scale in relation to Violet _

_ Sam --> Purple/blue hair --> Ability to breathe underwater _

_ Henrietta --> Mixed red/pink hair --> Ability to disarm people with words (note: personal experience: attempted to compliment writing she published in newspaper, left unable to talk after she simply complimented my experiments) _

_ Emile (Papa) --> Shifting pastel colours (note: skin seems to very lightly glow the same colour his hair is - branch study: see hair-skin colour relations) --> Minor empathic abilities _

_ Remy (Dad) --> Hot pink hair --> Immune to low doses of poison, resistant to mild doses of poison _

_ Logan (scientist presiding) --> Midnight blue hair --> No discernable abilities _

Logan stopped at his name, the last one on the list, a way to signal to himself that he had gotten to the end of his studies. At the time he had called himself magicless because as the chart said, he showed no signs of possessing any magical abilities. That was still true.

Or at least, he thought it was still true.

Unless…

Well... dragons were ancient magic. The magic now in mortal blood was ancient magic. It wouldn't be  _ that _ wild to assume there was a connection...?

Logan swiveled his chair away from the paper. Nope. He was not going to consider that he could  _ actually _ speak to dragons for non-toxic-magic reasons.

Logan was not  _ crazy. _

_ Toxic-magic is wayyy crazier than magic. _

Logan sighed heavily. He could either hear dragons speak because it was his magic ability, or because he had been exposed to too much toxic-magic.

This was his life.

Choosing between toxic-magic and blood-magic.

Before he could make a choice, or even have another proper mental break, Logan heard Dad call him for dinner. Ditching his satchel at his desk, Logan went to answer the summons.

The beginning of the meal was normal enough, as normal as any dinner with his Dads could be. Dad stole pieces of food by claiming they looked poisoned. Papa retaliated by taking his coffee away. Logan munched on his chicken while his Dads ran about the kitchen, Papa demanding his bread roll be given back and Dad demanding his coffee in turn.

"We do have a table for a reason, you know." Logan said, amused, while Dad perched on the corner of a counter, munching on his dinner with the roll hidden behind him. Papa stood on the other side of the room, the coffee cup next to him while he also ate.

"Tables are for cowards and people who  _ don't steal my coffee. _ "

"I just want my roll back!"

Logan's Dads took a second to regard each other about as coldly as men married for thirty-three years currently fighting over coffee and bread could.

Finally, Papa broke the glare to ask Logan casually, "So, how was your trip to the deep forest today?"

"Actually see a dragon?" Dad added.

"I did, actually." Logan, making a note to figure out what kind of dragon later. "It was fluffy."

"Did you pet it to confirm?"

"It was pretty clear from how it looked."

"I don't know, Logan." Dad teased. "That sounds like an  _ assumption. _ "

"And you know what assumptions do!" Papa said with a smile.

"Don't you dare."

"Makes an-"

" **_Papa._ ** "

Papa pouted ever-so-slightly but stopped. "Such hatred of clever word memorization tactics."

"I am scandalized by enough of Dad's actions; I do not need to up the amount of times I have seen my fairytale, pastel Papa swear."

"I am  _ hurt. _ " Papa replied. "You'll deal with your Dad's scandalous actions- like stealing bread rolls- but not mine? That's not very equal of you."

"Stealing a bread roll is about as scandalous as wearing a short skirt compared to  _ coffee thief _ you  _ beautiful monster. _ "

"Could you guys like not be petty gay messes for a minute?" Logan said, getting up to put his dish away.

"I am  _ always _ petty."

"He  _ stole _ my  **_roll._ ** "

Logan sighed and quickly snatched his Dad's mug before Papa could react. He turned to Dad, holding the mug out of reach.

"Roll."

"Coffee."

" _ Roll. _ "

" _ The coffee ungrateful child. _ "

"Do you want your coffee?"

Dad pouted but surrendered the roll to Logan, who gave it to Papa.

"Oh, wow! Look at that!" Logan said, mock-shocked. "The problem is miraculously solved."

Dad sipped his coffee. "It's cold."

"Yes, the great mystery of heat, it fades over time." Logan replied sarcastically.

"Who gave you the right to be so sassy to your own father?"

"I'm just telling you why it's cold." Logan replied cheekily.

"Boys, boys, you're both pretty." Papa broke in. "Is there a reason you wanted us to stop fighting over bread thief?"

Logan leaned on the counter, wondering if he should just keep the question to himself. He was on the spot now, however, so he said, "I was wondering if either of you have ever heard of environmental magic affecting people exposed to it for great lengths of time."

Papa frowned. "Environmental magic affecting people? Environmental magic is rare enough, I don't think there have really been any studies on that. If there have been, there aren't any conclusive results."

"Would you say it's possible?"

Dad shrugged. "I'd call it highly unlikely, if anything. Magic has a tendency to stay where it’s put. Otherwise every time someone with magic in their blood got a paper, things would go crazy." Dad grinned. "There might even be a magic blood trade if that was the case."

Logan fidgeted. "So if say, hypothetically, someone found they could do... something unnatural after spending a lot of time in a place infused with magic, it'd be more likely to be related to other factors than the environmental magic?"

Dad raised an eyebrow. "Just how hypothetical is this hypothetical?"

Logan attempted to convincingly wave a dismissive hand. "The details of this hypothetical are not important."

Dad tilted his glasses on the bridge of his nose. Papa leaned against the wall behind him and bit into his roll as if he had all the time in the world to get the details.

Logan sighed loudly. "I may have discovered a magical ability within myself."

Papa broke out in a big smile. Dad sipped his coffee with a smirk and, "Called it."

"What is it?" Papa asked excitedly.

"Uh." Logan glanced away from them. "This is where the hypothetical comes in. Because, um, it probably makes more sense for me to actually be high on toxic magic or something."

"That just makes it all the more interesting!" Papa assured him. "Come on, tell your Pops! What is it?"

"...I can hear dragons talk."

For a second, the kitchen was quiet. Logan looked at the floor while his Dads processed his words.

Then, at the same time as each other, Dad started laughing while Papa said, " **_Amazing._ ** "

Logan jerked his head back upwards. Dad was bracing himself against the wall while he laughed, and Papa looked like Logan had told him he could bring him a Treasure dragon. "This is... not the reaction I expected."

"Did you  _ talk _ to the dragon?" They both asked in the same breath, Papa's inquisitive ask sounding much nicer than Dad's cackled one.

"No!" Logan protested instantly. "I just... realized it was speaking. Possibly after it saw me."

"So the dragon  _ talked _ to  _ you _ ?"

Logan crossed his arms. "You both seem to have wildly different takes on this."

Papa instantly started waving his hands excitedly. "Well I mean how cool is it!?!? dragons are not only real, but you can  _ talk _ to them,  _ ohmygosh you could talk to a Treasure dragon or a Flower dragon, _ "

Dad cut in with, "Sweetie, I just think it's so  _ you _ to learn you can talk to dragons- which are directly connected to ancient magic- and your first thought is the magic in the deep forest is toxic and has affected you."

"Well, I mean, first I thought it was a hallucination." Logan said.

" _ What sort of nerd boy are you that your first thought was a hallucination? _ "

Logan instantly regretted everything.

"Be nice!" Papa said in Logan's defense, though Logan realized he just really wanted to talk to dragons. "I'm sure that in the moment it was very shocking."

"I bet the fact that apparently the dragon had spotted him didn't help any." Dad added slyly. "Mister I'm-Great-At-Observing-Without-Being-Observed."

"I had to leave my observation post to get a better look!" Logan defended. "Besides, this dragon didn't try to eat me so I take it as a win."

"Did you  _ assume _ it wouldn't eat you because it was fluffy?" Papa prodded.

Logan threw his hands in the air. "You two are possibly the most insufferable parents in the universe."

"You know you love us, sweetie."

The fact that Dad was completely right made Logan's glare very weak, and both Dad and Papa just laughed as he marched off about as indignantly as he could. Which wasn't very.

Back in his house, Logan pulled out his copy of the Dragon book and flipped through it. Eventually, he came to a picture that looked nearly identical to the dragon he had spotted in the woods. The main difference was that this one had its wings drawn stretched out behind it, showing that they were pure white.

He glanced at the paragraph written in his own neat penmanship beside it.

**Sky Dragon**

_ The Sky dragon is part of a rare species of dragon that can grow fur. The length of the fur can vary per individual dragon, some having only short stubby fur and some having fur long enough to layer over its scales. Their scales are various shades of sky blue that often matches their fur, with a white underbelly. _

_ The wings of the Sky dragon match its underbelly, giving off the illusion of a large cloud passing overhead when the Sky dragon is in flight. Unlike some species of dragons, whose claws can often break the illusion the rest of their body projects, the short white claws of the Sky dragon perfect match the underbelly. _

_ Sky dragons cannot breathe fire, but can blow out enough wind to move clouds to help better work with them acting like clouds. They also have downcurved horns that can release puffs of white, cloud-like smoke to help hide them among the other clouds. _

Finishing the paragraphs, Logan tapped his fingers on the spine of the book and turned his head to look out his window, towards the forest.

A sky dragon living in the deep forest? Logan may not have been the most perceptive person ever, and it may have been a small village, but he was fairly certain if the Sky dragon had ever gotten a chance to fly about, someone would have noted the odd looking cloud.

Instead, the dragon so clearly evolved to live in the skies was stuck in a deep and relatively dark forest, where most of the light was artificial from the trees. More than that, the forest was absolutely dead, something else Logan felt the cheerful dragon couldn't have enjoyed.

Which brought him to another point. How were the dragons even still alive? Perhaps Logan had just never seen any source of food, and perhaps they were all vegetarian, but he felt that couldn't be true.

Logan frowned. Mythical dragons were secluding themselves in the deep forest outside of his house, some of them seemingly going against their own nature and with no clear food source.

What the Hell was going on in the forest?


	5. We Actually Get to the Prompt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We Actually Get to the Prompt, aka, Logan talks to some dragons!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Bruising, minor attack, distrust of human  
> Tell me if I need to add anything!  
> Also: A poorly placed hug but that's just the author's fault

After more talking with his parents (who cornered him in his  _ own house _ how rude, ignore the fact it's on their property), Logan decided that the best course of action was to go back in and attempt to establish a friendly relationship with the Sky dragon.

Of course, this wasn't his idea, it was Papa's. The idea to stand near the stone line and bring burning hot coffee to fling in the dragon's face if it attacked was Dad's.

Logan decided to ignore the fact that none of it was really his idea on the base that he did really want to know what was going down in that forest. And... well... the dragons in there seemed to be the only first-hand sources he was going to find.

Or be able to talk to.

So after sleeping til morning- thank goodness for fall; the sun came up later, no need to fight it so soon in the morning- Logan once more grabbed his satchel and headed towards the deep forest. This time, with plans to  _ talk _ to a  _ dragon. _

Logan accepted the coffee his Dad offered him but only to gulp down. He put his wakefulness and ability to run over splashing it in the face of a creature with thick, possible heat resistant, scales.

"How does one summon a dragon?" Logan muttered to himself, standing around the area he had seen the Sky dragon the day before. He knew it was unlikely to find it in the same area, but he didn't want to risk wandering and run into the less friendly Guardian dragon, or even the mysterious Smoke dragon.

He walked about a bit, kicking up the leaves slightly and trying not to cringe at how the noise traveled in the deep woods. He was beginning to feel extremely foolish, and was considering going back home and lying about being chased or something, when he heard stomping coming towards him from the distance.

He ducked behind a tree on instinct, making sure it was the bright blue dragon he saw rounding the forest trees and not the mossy or dark one. Luckily, it was. Another smile was stretched on its face, one that died as it arrived at the scene of Logan's leaf-kicking and found it empty.

"Um... human?" The Sky dragon said, sounding slightly hopeful as it turned around in the area. "Human, did you come back?"

Taking a stealing breath, Logan slowly stepped out from behind his tree and said, "I'm here."

The Sky dragon wrapped back around to face Logan immediately, grin returned. "Oh, you came back!! And you're talking now!"

Logan nodded slowly, checking his internal reaction to run or possibly scream. "Yes. It is... very nice to meet you properly. My, erm, apologies for leaving so swiftly yesterday. I had other matters to attend to."

The dragon gasped and bent its front knees, putting its face right in front of Logan's. Given its entire face was roughly the size of an entire Logan made this a vaguely disconcerting gesture.

"You can understand me?! Not just as growls!?"

"Yes." Logan responded. "It is good to see you also understand my language."

"Oh, human language is simple. Your words are much better defined." The Sky dragon said excitedly. "But I haven't had a human understand dragon speak in- well, in never! Do all humans speak dragon now?"

"I fear not." Logan admitted. "It is a... unique trait of which I am the only one I currently know to possess it."

The Sky dragon briefly pouted. "Well, that's a shame." It brightened again. "But one new human friend is better than none! My name's Patton! Yours?"

"Logan."

"Logan." Patton said cheerily. "What a nice name. Respectable. I think it fits you well!"

"Why, um, thank you." Logan said. No one had complimented his name before. It wasn't really a common practice... anywhere. "Yours is also nice...?"

"Awwww thank you!" Patton happily did a little jump, the impact made when he landed shaking Logan and forcing him to brace himself against the nearest tree. "Oof, I probably shouldn't do that, heh?" Patton said, still smiling. "Tiny human."

Logan decided a huge dragon that could crush him easily calling him 'tiny human' was very not reassuring.

"Oh, I have the perfect solution!" Logan took a step back, concerned what the perfect solution would be.

He was not expecting to watch as Patton's scales slowly slid over each other, his bright white horns curl tighter together, his fur cover more of his body until he was standing such that his head was only slightly above Logan's.

"Now I'm human sized too!"

Logan nodded. Patton was much more... shaggy in this state, his fur still the same length, now just dragging along the forest floor. "Indeed."

"Do you want to meet my other friends?" Patton asked. Logan bit his tongue. He didn't want to say no, but on the other hand, if Patton's friends included, say, the Guardian dragon…

Patton picked up on his unease. "They won't hurt you, I promise! I protect my friends." He said, more serious.

"Well..." Logan shifted slightly on his feet. Patton  _ was _ a big dragon in normal size. Perhaps it'd be fine...?

"Do you want to meet my small friend first?" Patton asked. "He's not scary at all. Mostly because you can hold him in your hand!"

"Um, sure." Logan said, curious about the first dragon he'd see who would not be bigger than him.

Patton smiled wider and shook his head. "Wake up, Roman!! I have a human friend who wants to meet you!!"

Logan watched as the mass of fur on top of Patton's head shifted in place until, drowsily, a tiny red-gold dragon popped out to look at Logan.

"Hello peasant."

"Impossible." Logan said, resisting the urge to look away from the scientific impossibility.

"I know you, a puny mortal, could never imagine to see such an amazing creature-"

" _ No, _ you can't exist." Logan said stubbornly. "I'm sorry, you just can't."

Roman blinked at him. "Um. I think I do exist, so what are you on about?"

"You're a  _ treasure dragon _ and that just isn't possible, I'm sorry, but I refuse to acknowledge that it's possible." Logan replied.

"I'm still lost at why you think I can't exist." Roman replied, sounding annoyed. "I mean, I'm  _ here _ I'm  _ fabulous _ and I'm  _ very real _ ."

Logan was tempted to pull out his personal Dragon book to point out each point that made Roman's existence impossible, but years of Papa's favorite bedtime stories being about the Treasure dragon meant it was the only entry he had flawlessly memorized.

**Treasure Dragon**

_ The Treasure dragon is the smallest species of dragon, often growing no longer than an average human pointer finger. They have red scales bordered in gold as, according to myth, each scale is actually made of gold, the red only being a cover. _

_ Their wings have the ability to fold over each other such so that they're barely visible on the dragon's back. The wings are completely red and have a wingspan roughly four times the length of the dragon. _

_ While the wings are not incredibly strong, the small body they're carrying and the length of the wings allow them to glide for nearly endless amounts of time, floating away on practically any gust of wind. Theoretically, a Treasure dragon could fly all the way around the world in a few hours, only using the wings once to get air bound and glide the rest of the way. _

_ Uniquely, Treasure dragons can blow thin bursts of fire up to five feet (one-point-five meters) in front of them. Their scales, or at least the red protective covering of the scales, are extremely fire and heat proof. Treasure dragons can often be found hiding in fires for warmth, their red and gold appearance allowing them to easily blend into the fire, despite their natural homes almost always being forests and tree tops. _

"Oh, wow, Logan! How did you memorize all that?!" Patton said excitedly after Logan finished reciting the page information. "Sometimes I just forget where I put Roman!"

"It's a problematic position." Roman said before continuing, "Also, memorizing all that information is either an extreme form of stalking or an extreme form of dedication to your god and I'm not sure which one this is."

"It's an extreme form of dedication from my Papa and an extreme form of annoyance for me." Logan said, carefully picking up Roman from Patton's hair. Roman yelped indignantly but he was too small to do much more outside of that.

"If your scales are made of gold how do you glide so well?" Logan said, tilting Roman to see if the gold shine seemed false. "How could you even fly with these wings? Wings thin enough to  _ fold up. _ Not to mention how far you can blow out fire incredibly far despite, once more, being  _ tiny. _ "

"I feel a little attacked by how much you're harping on this 'tiny' thing."

Logan went on as if he didn't hear him. "You live in a forest biome and yet throughout the history of your species you have evolved in  _ no _ way to survive in the forest. You're not even poisonous or anything, so the bright factor doesn't help. And for such a small species you have no proper defense mechanisms except one that could destroy your home."

"We have just met and you have this many problems with me?" Roman demanded.

Logan hummed. "I love my Papa, but he was not very much into the picking on the exacts of what we thought at the time were just myths. The growing scientist I was at the time, however, was and is still angry at your existence."

"Well that's not very nice." Roman pouted.

Logan put him down on the palm of his hand, leveling his face with Roman's. "You are the sunfish of the dragon world."

Roman frowned. "That means...?"

"Regardless of how big your ego may be you as a species  _ suck. _ "

"Now, now, Logan!" Patton berated lightly. "Roman is very nice, and he doesn't suck."

Roman tensed slightly in Logan's hand. " _ Pat. _ "

"He blows!" Patton said with a laugh. "He blows fire!"

Roman slumped down. "Padre, you know I love your jokes, but that was a little sad."

"I thought it was  _ wind _ -erful!"

" _ I blow  _ _ fire _ _. _ "

_ My Dad may love the Treasure dragon in theory but his spirit animal is apparently Patton. _ Logan thought.

Once Patton stopped laughing at his own jokes, he said, "So, Logan, are you ready to meet my other friends?!"

Logan didn't answer straight away, taking a second to look once more at Roman. 

Clearly the other dragons weren't going to be as easy to deal with as Roman the tiny scientific impossibility, but Roman hadn't even tried to hurt him. And Patton was  _ very _ sure that Logan would be safe…

Logan offered the furry dragon a small smile. "Of course."

Patton happily bounced. "Great!!!" He ducked his head forward, and Logan was careful to put Roman back where he had been sleeping. The Treasure dragon burrowed partly into the fluff but kept his head above. Patton then turned around and squatted down. "Get on!!" He offered cheerfully.

Logan hesitated for a moment before he carefully pulled himself over the back of Patton, trying to brace himself without hurting the dragon. Patton must have had thick scales, however, because even as Patton started running and Logan desperately gripped for any form of support he showed no signs of discomfort.

Logan wasn't sure how long Patton had been going for before he slowed to a stop in a small clearing. As Logan got off his back, he observed the pond in the center of it and the seemingly random pile of stones beside it.

"Virgil!! Darcio!!" Patton yelled excitedly. "I found a friend!!!!"

Logan looked around in the trees, waiting for the dragons Patton was calling to appear out of the woods. Instead, however, he found them crawling out of the stone pile. The Smoke dragon came out in a puff of smoke, materializing in front of Logan while the Guardian dragon, pressed low to the ground with his wings completely folded over his body, crawled out of the pile.

"Pat, if this is another frog you kidnapped from the other side of the white line-" The Guardian dragon stopped speaking as he noticed Logan. Logan gave him a slight wave while he moved himself more behind Patton, praying the Sky dragon could actually protect him.

Because the Guardian dragon was looking pissed and the Smoke dragon had turned back into smoke, now frantically swirling around the heads of the rest of the group.

"Patton, for the love of- is that a  _ human?! _ " The Guardian dragon demanded.

"Ye-es." Patton said. "Isn't it nice? We haven't seen a human in so long. And this one can understand us!"

The mossy dragon looked at Logan. "You can understand us, eh?"

"Um, yes." Logan replied hesitantly.

"Well, understand  _ this. _ " The Guardian dragon opened its mouth wider and roared, a breeze blowing by Logan and forcing him back into the nearest tree, slamming into it hard enough, he knew, to leave a bruise.

"Ouch." Logan said, trying to rub at the now sore part of his back.

Patton rushed over to him, bending down to nuzzle at his back. "Oh no- are you okay?!?!"

"It'll just be a bad bruise in the morning. I'll be fine." Logan brushed it off.

Hearing this reassurance, Patton swiveled back to the Guardian dragon. "Darcio!!!! You could have hurt him badly!!"

"His kind have done  _ much _ worse to us, Patton." Darcio sniffed. "He doesn't belong here."

"Well he isn't  _ his kind _ Darcio- he's nice!" Patton rebuked.

"I'm trying to protect us, Pat- he's going to hurt us!"

"So far the only one to hurt anyone has been  _ you. _ " Patton spit back. Logan didn't think he had realized it, but the Sky dragon had slipped back into its original size, looking equally ferocious despite being slightly shorter than the Guardian dragon.

Darcio let out a huff and turned away from Patton. Patton sighed and looked away as well. "I'm sorry, Darcy. You have every reason to be suspicious of Logan. But you can't let your past physically influence your future. You can't just hurt him for his species."

"...I know." Darcio said after a moment. He glanced at Logan. "I'm sorry, human. I shouldn't have done that."

"All is forgiven." Logan said immediately.

Darcio's glance turned into a glare. "But I still don't trust you." And with that declaration, he turned and stomped away into the woods.

Patton watched him stomp away while the Smoke dragon- who Logan deduced was the earlier called 'Virgil'- came back down to the ground in material form. He looked uneasily at Logan before turning to Patton.

"A human, Pat? Really? Are you sure this is a good idea?" He was talking quietly, but in the empty woods, Logan still heard the words clearly.

"No, I'm not, Vee." Patton replied honestly. "But it's been so long. We've changed so much, I have to believe people have too." He stole a glance at Logan. "Also, have you seen how small and cute he is? He'll make a good friend! I just know it."

Virgil studied Patton's face for a moment before saying, "Okay, then. I'm going to go make sure Darcio's okay."

"I'll come with you." Roman said, gracefully jumping from Patton's floofy hair on to Virgil's flat head, curling around one of his horns. "Padre, uh, you may want to say goodbye to your new friend for the day. Give Darcio time to cool down, you know?"

Patton frowned but nodded. "Fair enough, Ro. See you guys later." Virgil lifted slightly off the ground, half-flying, half-walking off in the direction the Guardian dragon had gone. Patton turned to Logan, already shifting back into his smaller size.

"I'm really sorry about that." He said apologetically, bowing his head to offer Logan something to hold while he stood back up. "Darcio's past with humans is... complicated. It's my fault, really; I should have realized he still wasn't completely over it."

Logan took the offered help, forcing himself not to wince as he got up, if only for Patton's sake. The Sky dragon looked ashamed, and his eyes kept darting off in the direction of the other dragons.

"It is no problem whatsoever, Patton. If it is better that I stay out of the deep woods-" Logan was instantly cut off by Patton.

"Oh, no, please don't! I'm not sure if Darcio will ever try to be your friend or not, but I promise you he won't hurt you again. And it's a big area- he can easily avoid you while your here." Patton smiled, this time sheepishly. "I like hanging out with you, Logan. I haven't been around a human in forever, and you really, truly seem like a good one. It'll be nice to hang out more."

"Oh, well, uh,"

"You don't have to if you don't want to!!" Patton reassured immediately. "I know that Darcio can be a lot, and I guess Virgil might be a little scary to a human-"

"Patton, no, it's fine." Logan countered. "As long as it won't be a problem for, uh, Darcio, I too think it might be fun to hang out more."

Patton brightened. "That's super! But, uh, for now... it may be best if you leave..."

Logan waved his hand. "It's no trouble, Patton. I understand."

"Want a ride back to the white circle? I, eh, I'm not really supposed to go past it."

"If it doesn't put you out, skipping the walk would be grand."

And so that's how Logan, his back feeling slightly like it was on fire, ended up riding princess-style on a fluffy Sky dragon back to the white circle; a Sky dragon named Patton who he was now friends with.

Life was  _ weird _ and other than the back pain, Logan was willing to get behind it.

(Very slight time skip)

Dad raised an eyebrow as Logan practically dragged himself across the lab towards the med cabinet. "You doing alright there, sweetie?"

Logan refiled through the potions until he found one of the stronger med vials and drank it in a single gulp. "Peachy."

"Pain and sarcasm?" Dad put down his current experiment. "What happened with the Sky dragon?"

"His name's Patton." Logan replied. "He's really nice, actually."

"Then, uh, what's with the med vial chugging and usage of the word 'peachy?'"

"One of his friends doesn't like humans much."

Dad furrowed his eyebrows. "Which one?"

"Dad, you can't hunt down the dragon. You know you'll lose."

"On my deathbed will I lose to anything that hurt you."

Logan smirked. "Your concern is appreciated, but it's under control. It was just a one-off sort of thing. Won't happen again."

Dad looked ready to protest when he heard Papa calling out for dinnertime.

"You cannot mention this to Papa." Logan said immediately.

"And why not?"

"Because you and I both know that not only will it absolutely  _ crush _ his love of dragons, but that he  _ will _ hunt the dragon down and there  _ will _ be bloodshed." Logan said.

Dad frowned. "I won't, Lo, but if it happens again-"

"It won't happen again."

"Well, if it  _ does _ happen again, I will tell your Papa, and we will both go hunt down the dragon that hurt you." Dad said resolutely.

"Fine." Logan conceded. "But, please, it's okay. Don't do anything rash yet."

"That's like my entire personality." Dad replied with a wink.

Logan chuckled. "I hadn't noticed."

Logan headed for the door, his Dad following. "Swear you won't mention it?"

"Uh huh." Dad replied. "I trust you to stay safe out there Logan. If you're sure it won't happen again... I'll trust you on that too. But if something changes, there  _ will _ be blood. Even if I'm just cleaning up after your Papa..." Remy added as an afterthought.

Logan nodded. "Got it."

Dad turned to close the lab doors and Logan, more on instinct than anything, latched onto him from behind for a hug.

Dad looked down confusedly at him. "You good?"

"I love you, Dad."

"Well I love you too sweetie, you just normally don't do the hugging thing. You prefer to give love through new coffee flavors."

"Yeah, well, you both promised to keep a secret for me and also to kill for me in the same breath." Logan said as way of explanation. "So I want to hug you because I feel like you're giving me these grand love promises and gestures and I'm just giving you coffee."

"Coffee  _ is _ love." Dad replied, though he wrapped his own arms around Logan to hug him back. "But this is nice too."

"Sillies, dinner is going to get cold so-" Papa stopped as he got closer to his husband and son, who were hugging right outside the laboratory. "Are you guys having a hug and you didn't invite me!?"

Dad tilted his head to look at Papa. "You know you don't need an invitation for hugs, Em."

So Papa happily joined the hug without waiting for spoken permission because he was Papa and if his family was hugging, he was hugging.

"Why are we hugging?" Papa asked. Logan tensed very slightly, trying to pick an answer.

"Because my son, the nerd, is gone  _ so _ often, leaving me so  _ lonely _ and  _ old _ to hunt dragons, I wanted proof of his love and would only take payments in hugs." Dad said before Logan could come up with something.

Papa laughed. "Only take payments in hugs- I should use that! All the hugs I could get for skipped chores..."

"Dad what have you  _ done. _ " Logan complained lightly.

"It's just what you get for leaving all the time." Dad said dramatically, with a knowing glance at Logan to also convey  _ this is your punishment for making me lie. _

"He's given me the secret to more hugs!" Papa said, happily unaware of what Logan and Dad knew. " _ So many hugs. _ "

"I'll never skip a chore again."

"Logan Nerd Palevale you don't remember to clean your test tubes unless you're going to use them for a new experiment. You had  _ fungus _ growing out of the last one." Dad countered. "Your Papa is going to have a lifetime's worth of hugs."

"I'll run away from home and live with the dragons."

Papa's attention was caught by the word 'dragons.' "Oh, that's right- the dragons! How did today go?!"

The hug slowly broke up as the family headed for the kitchen, with Logan outlining his visit with the dragons in the deep woods (not mentioning either the attack or the treasure dragon- both of them would have instantly have had Papa rushing towards the woods faster than his legs could take him) while Papa and Dad listened intently.

By the end of it, Papa was asking him if he was going back the next day. Dad was watching him over the brim of his coffee cup as Logan immediately replied, "Of course. And I promise I'll be careful." He added in response to Dad's unobtrusive, yet somehow worried, sip of his coffee.

"Oh, we know you will be, Lo-Lo." Papa said with a smile. "I'm happy you're having fun with the dragons."

Logan smiled at his dinner. Despite the now numb ache in his back, he was able to honestly respond, "Yeah, it's been a lot of fun so far. Going back tomorrow will be great."

"Just be careful not to get eaten." Dad teased.

Logan ignored the undertones of truth.


	6. A Jumbled Chapter Featuring Nerdy Logan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan gets a little nerdy before going home for the day. But perhaps the day doesn't end there...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Fire (no damage), swearing  
> Tell me if I need to add anything!  
> Note: I didn't mean to end this chapter where I ended it but it got later than I expected before I started editing so. Pity me.

Logan was back to the white stone line, his satchel now holding not only his Dragon reference book but an empty notebook and quill + ink. Along with hanging out with Patton, Logan had every intention of starting to begin his research on the habits and daily lives of the dragons.

Starting with Patton, and possibly Roman if he was back in Patton's hair, seemed like a good idea.

Logan didn't have to do much walking along the inside of the border before he ran into Patton, already in his smaller form and seemingly chasing the ground. He stopped when he saw Logan.

"Oh, Logan! Hi!" Patton said excitedly. He turned from the spot of ground he had been ready to pounce on. Out of the leaves just a second later popped Roman.

"The human has returned?" Roman said, sounding surprised.

"Oh, uh, I guess I didn't mention it to you, but yeah." Patton said, sounding slightly embarrassed.

"Is Darcio-"

"We talked, Roman. It's fine." Patton said, sounding slightly put out before he turned back to Logan. "So! What do you want to do?"

"Well, um, I didn't really have anything in mind." Logan said. He patted his satchel slightly. "Well, except for, um, well, if you don't mind, I was just going to do a little bit of writing on how you act- for research purposes, I mean, dragons are pretty rare- okay, completely rare-"

Patton smiled. "It's fine, Logan. If I could write I'd probably be doing the same with you. I mean, I guess we're both the first of a species we've seen in a long time!"

"More like never for me, but yeah." Logan responded.

"And of course I don't mind you writing about me." Roman added while he climbed back up Patton's leg and onto his head. "It only makes sense for the people to want to write about their king."

"For such a tiny thing you really seem to think you're the king of everything." Logan matched. "I assume you can't grow your size like Patton shrinks his?"

"No." Roman admitted gloomily. "But I can shrink!"

Logan eyed the tiny dragon. "What, into the molecular level?"

Roman rolled his eyes before leaping off Patton's head and gliding all of the three feet between him and Logan. He landed on his hand. "Watch!"

Logan did so, observing as Roman's scales slid over each other as Patton's had. When he had finished shrinking, he was just barely big enough to fill the space of the tip of Logan's finger.

"Ta-da!" Logan chalked the surprisingly clear and understandable voice to his ability, considering he couldn't even tell how much Roman was moving his mouth currently.

"You're practically minuscule." Logan said, wanting to check out how Roman's proportions had shifted but being too afraid to damage the tiny body to do so.

"Yep!" Roman said in agreement. "I might not be able to get bigger but now I can hide even better!"

"And also be crushed easier." Logan countered. "I'd be confused about how this is an adaptation but I guess it's just something dragons can do."

"You're just a negative Nancy about everything, aren't you?"

"Pretty much." Logan stretched his hand back over to Patton's head. Roman jumped off immediately, growing back to his slightly bigger size before he landed.

"So, if I may ask," Logan started after a second of the two parties just standing there, "what do you all eat? This forest is surprisingly inactive. I'm not ever seen a bird or insect or anything in here other than you four."

"Oh, we eat at the pond!" Patton said. "It's got plenty of fish."

"But, how?" Logan asked. "I mean, it's not a huge pond. Can it hold enough fish for you to eat and also have the fish reproduce?"

Patton made a gesture similar to a shrug. "We don't really think about how the fish are there, I guess. You could check it out for yourself if you want to? I know you just barely saw it yesterday."

Logan instantly recalled that the stone pile near the pond seemed to be the dragons' living space. "I don't want to disturb anyone."

"And by 'anyone' you mean Darcio?" Patton said with a knowing smile. "It's alright. He's out patrolling the woods, as per usual."

"He does that often?" Logan said. "I have to be the first human to even think about coming in the deep woods in decades, if not centuries. Patrolling seems a little unnecessary."

Patton chuckled. "I've told him that too. He said safe is better than sorry. And after he found you picking flowers a few weeks ago he feels as if he's been validated in his ways."

"Got it." Logan said.

Patton nodded before gesturing with his head. "It's this way."

This time, Logan walked beside Patton, pulling out his notebook as he went to make a few primary notes.

_ Treasure dragon - Roman - egotistical, comes in the sizes tiny and tiny-tiny, still as infuriating as his species was when they were just myths _

_ Sky dragon - Patton - nice, appears to be the second largest dragon when not human sized, doesn't seem to mind the rest of the group's distrust towards me _

_ Guardian dragon - Darcio - doesn't like humans (bad past experience it seems), largest of the group, currently avoiding _

"Yo Lo, we're here." Patton said, his eyes lighting up. " _ Yo Lo rhymes. _ "

Logan wasn't sure when Papa would be meeting Patton but at this rate Logan knew they'd have to. He put his notebook back away, looking up to find that while he had been scribbling away they had reached the clearing.

Logan came up to the edge of the pond at Patton's prompting. Glancing in, he found it surprisingly clear and, true to Patton's word, filled with fish. Logan couldn't count them exactly, but from what he could tell, while there were enough for a few days of feeding, there wouldn't be enough for three-point-one dragons to eat  _ and _ continue reproducing at a steady enough rate to keep being dragon chow.

As Logan continued to observe the pond, he realized it was not only alive with fish. A few bugs were buzzing around the plant life at the edges, and a single frog was ribbiting on one of the stones next to it.

The wildlife stopped there, however, even the insects not seeming to dare to buzz much further than the pond.

"Is there a reason this is the only spot in the deep forest with life?" Logan asked, more to himself than Patton.

Patton still answered him. "Other than us, you mean. But even then I don't really know. There just... isn't anything else."

Logan ignored the response to kneel down on the ground, putting his face as close to the surface of the lake he could without touching it. He didn't want to accidentally dirty the food and water source for the dragons, but he was also  _ incredibly _ interested in where all the fish were coming from.

"Careful." Logan jerked back when he heard the different voice. "You might fall in."

Logan leaned back from the lake, slightly sheepish, turning to face the Smoke dragon. Virgil had come out of the stone enclosure, looking bemused by what Logan was doing. "I'm trying to figure out where all the fish come from." Logan said with as straight a face as he could maintain.

"All ponds connect to the ocean." Virgil said quietly, using his head to gesture at what Logan now say was hole in the side of the pond. It was dark and as such Logan couldn't tell how far or where it stretched. If it weren’t for the sake he knew the fish had to be coming from somewhere, Logan would have said that it was highly doubtful it actually both led to the ocean and was close enough that fish kept coming through it.

"You've followed it all the way to the ocean, have you?"

"What? No. That would just be a waste of time." Virgil responded.

"Well then you can't just assume it goes to the ocean."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Pat, why did you have to get a geeky one?"

"I prefer the term nerdy." Logan said with an adjustment of his glasses.

"I'm not surprised."

Patton plodded over to Virgil. "Be nice, Vee. Why don't you come down and properly talk to Logan?"

Virgil raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realize this didn't count as talking."

"You're towering over him. He's at a disadvantage."

Virgil looked annoyed by this request, but did as he was asked. There was a puff of smoke before it swirled back into a single being, now one roughly the same size as Patton.

In his smaller size, Virgil was closer to a serpent sort of dragon, with long legs to support him as he now met Logan at eye level.

"I feel tiny." Virgil complained.

Roman popped out of Patton's fluff. "You want to stick with that?"

"I apologize, Ro." Virgil smirked. "Apparently in any size you're still a bothersome ant."

_ "Take that back." _

_ "You can't make me." _

Roman pushed himself up as tall on Patton's head as he could and blew a burst of fire at Virgil. Logan jerked out of the way as the end of the stream just barely scorched Virgil's neck. The Smoke dragon looked unamused.

"Oh no." He deadpanned. "I've been mortally wounded."

"I've got more of that coming for you!" Roman yelled seriously. "And there's nothing you can do about it!"

"Well, I could just do  _ this. _ " Virgil said just as he shifted into smoke. He rushed at Roman, startling the small dragon out of Patton's hair. He scrambled around the pond as the smoke chased him.

"Do they do this often?" Logan asked Patton.

The Sky dragon laughed. "Yeah, Virgil and Roman go after each other a lot. But they always mean it in the sweetest of ways."

_ "Virgil you demonic swirl of darkness get away from me!!" _

"Very sweet." Patton muttered as Roman came back out of the rock pile flapping his wings as hard as he could to get back on top of Patton's head.

"You can't attack Patton!!" Roman yelled, now completely hidden in the fur. The smoke flooded around Patton's head anyways, ruffling Patton's fur and causing Roman to angrily shriek for a minute or so before it moved away and re-solidified as human-sized Virgil.

Roman popped the very top of his head out of the now messed up floof of hair he was living in, scowling at Virgil. "That wasn't  _ fair. _ "

"How so?" Virgil asked coolly.

"It's supposed to be a fire fight! With your breath and crap." Roman pouted. "Un-materializing and attacking as an untouchable puff of smoke is cheating."

"Fire fights aren't fair when your opponent can't blow fire, Ro." Patton pointed out.

"Well he could have... you know... located me."

"That's weak, even for you, Princey."

"I steal treasure from  _ one _ prince and build  _ one _ stick kingdom and you never let me forget it."

"Wait, can we back up?" Logan said, ignoring the glares between Roman and Virgil. "What do you mean Virgil could have 'located' you?"

Roman waved his short arms haphazardly. "He, like, screams in a way you can't hear and then he suddenly knows where everything is. It's  _ extremely _ unfair when playing hide and go seek."

Logan whipped out his notebook. "Wait, so like bats do?"

"Um, yes? No? I haven't seen a bat in a while." Roman glanced disdainfully at Virgil. "Dark, flighty, likes caves, prone to biting- I lied. I  _ live _ with a bat."

"Bold of you to assume I take that as an insult."

"I mean it makes sense." Logan was muttering to himself as he scribbled in his notebook. "You were called the moon dragon, you've clearly evolved for nighttime... Do you have night vision?"

"Well we can all see during the night- what, have humans lost the ability to see at nighttime?" Virgil asked, sounding confused.

"Well of course you wouldn't know." Logan whispered underneath his breath. He put his book and satchel down and moved towards Virgil, who seemed wary of the sudden approach.

"Hey, uh, buddy, what are you-" Virgil stopped when Logan got right up to his face, peering into the dragon's eyes.

"Now I can't really be sure, eyes aren't an exact science in this regard, but you seem to have night vision." Logan muttered, scientific interest taking over his fear of being so near to the Smoke dragon.

"Is this a common occurrence among humans?" Virgil asked, more unamused than anything. "Studying each other's eyes?"

"No." Logan responded automatically, pulling away from Virgil and going back to writing in his notebook.

"Well then." Virgil said as Logan hunched over his notebook. "I'll just... pretend that didn't happen."

Logan ignored him in favor of scribbling,

_ Smoke dragon - Virgil - seems to have night vision, seems to have echolocation, will chase people in smoke form _

"So... if not all humans randomly peer into your face, what do most of them do?" Roman asked curiously.

"Well it really does depend on the human." Logan answered offhandedly. "Of course if they're excited about dragons that might do the same. Or, at least, they'd do the same if they were really quite interested in the science of dragon eyes. More likely they'd just gasp in awe, possibly scream. I know a few who'd faint."

"Faint because I'm  _ glorious? _ "

"Faint because they didn't know such blinding stupidity could be put in such a small being." Virgil cut in. Roman gasped.

" _ You fiend. _ "

"Oh, behave you two." Patton said lightly. "We all know they'd faint out of how amazing you both are!"

"See! Patton gets it." Roman gloated.

"He said we're  _ both _ amazing, you twat."

"But I'm  _ more _ so."

"Complimenting you two shouldn't be such a struggle." Patton said with a sigh. "Why can't you just accept you're both equally perfect in my eyes?"

"Because your eyes think everyone is perfect, Padre!" Roman matched. "When looked at closely, it becomes clear I am more perfect!"

"You can't be  _ more _ perfect." Virgil countered.

" _ Watch me. _ "

"As fun as watching you bicker is..." Logan began, slipping his notebook back into his satchel while Roman seemed ready to blow fire once more, "I probably should be getting home."

"Oh, is home far?" Patton asked, glancing up at the beginning-to-glow leaves.

"Not very, but my Dads will get worried if I'm out much past sunset."

"Fair enough!" Patton said cheerily. "Come on, I'll take you back to the stone circle."

Virgil nodded as Logan climbed on. "Bye, human." He said before heading back into the stone pile.

Logan waved as he rode off. They arrived at the white circle line soon enough, and Logan slid off Patton's back and directly onto the other side of the line.

"Bye Patton. I'll see you again tomorrow?" Logan left the comment as a question.

Patton nodded excitedly. "Yep! Bye-bye Logan! Roman, say goodbye."

The floof on Patton's hair didn't move, and no response came out of it. Patton shrugged. "He's probably sleeping. Roman gets  _ a lot _ of beauty sleep. Not that he needs it, if you ask me."

"It's alright Patton. Good day."

Patton smiled and waved his tail in response as Logan headed home.

Logan got to the edge of his property just as Dad was coming out of the laboratory, Papa having apparently just called for dinner. Dad waved as Logan approached.

"Welcome back to the dragonless world." He joked as he held the door open for Logan.

"I'll take it for now." Logan returned. "I just watched two dragons fight and possibly flirt with each other for half and hour. There was a chase as well. It's been a semi-productive day."

"Well, semi-productive days are better than productive days." Dad reassured.

"I think it's the other way around."

"Semi-productive days have time for coffee, kisses, and improper scientific experiments that lead to explosions."

Logan side-glanced at Dad. "So what did you do today?"

"Drank coffee, got kissed by your Papa, blew up the downstairs of the lab."

"And the productive part of today was...?"

"I now know two more substances that shouldn't be mixed together."

Logan rolled his eyes as he sat down at the table, Papa just finishing with setting it. "You need more direct supervision."

"Then I might not have a chance to blow things up, sweetie!"

"That's the point."

"I don't like that plan, then."

Papa sat down while chuckling. "No worries, Lo-Lo. It was a minor incident. The basement might just smell a little like smoke and lavender for a bit."

"How do you even cause an explosion with lavender?"

"Talent."

Papa chuckled again. "Okay, enough about our simple little explosions. How were the dragons?"

"Well, Patton was as cheery as ever." Logan answered. "The other two, uh, Roman and Virgil fought a bit, but it seems like that's normal. Oh, and Virgil's got echolocation, which I thought was just  _ cool. _ "

"That's because it is cool!" Papa agreed with a grin.

"And Roman?" Dad asked. "Does he have any cool tricks we don't know about?"

"He's a touch egotistical." Logan replied with a smirk. "Very good at hiding from smoke clouds, if not actually avoiding them."

"Well now that's just  _ rude! _ Egotistical, I'm egotistical am I-"

Logan jerked out of his seat, stumbling to stop from falling as the tiny Treasure dragon fell out of his hair onto the table.

" _ Roman!? _ "

"Who else could be this  _ beautiful _ this  _ handsome _ this  _ wonde- _ "

Roman was cut off by Papa's rather high-pitched scream of,  **_"TREASURE DRAGON?!?!"_ **

Logan sat back down with a chuckle. He glanced at Roman. "Roman, meet my parents. Parents, meet Roman, the  _ treasure dragon. _ "

Roman squinted at Logan. "Why do I feel like-"

He didn't finish his thought, stopped by Papa gently but eagerly picking him up.

"Ohmygiddyuncle it's a  **_treasure dragon!!!!_ ** "

"What is it with you people and picking me up?!" Roman asked, wiggling in Papa's grasp.

"You're tiny." Dad said with a smirk. "We like to pick up tiny things."

"The size too?!"

"They're my parents, Roman, did you expect them to be wildly different from me?"

"Treasure dragon baby." Papa said happily. "I can't believe you're sti- I just can’t believe you’re real! Logan, why didn't you tell me he was real?!"

"I thought you might go running into the forest to chase him down, properly frightening all the dragons."

" _ My son, you know me so well. _ "

Dad had found a quill and was now using it to carefully poke Roman. "Are your scales really made of gold?"

"That's what he told me." Logan said, annoyed. "I don't like it very much."

"But Lo-Lo! He's real! You can't criticize the myths for being unrealistic now!" Papa said with a smile.

Logan narrowed his eyes at Roman. "I can if I still think his existence is unrealistic."

"Well you're just a treasure dragon hater." Roman said, sticking out his tongue just a bit at Logan.

"Papa your favorite dragon is being mean to me."

"Now, now!" Papa said. "I can't have two of my three favorite living things fight with each other!"

"Em, honey, love, dearest,  _ please _ don't tell me this dragon you met five minutes ago is now part of the 'favorite living things in the world' list."

"Mayyyyyyybe."

Dad turned to Logan and said in a conversational tone, "So, this is what happens when you introduce a species to a new environment."

Logan nodded sagely. "It takes over and often kicks out species already living in niches it wishes to occupy."

"You guys know I won't kick you out!" Papa protested. "I have enough love for all of you!"

"That was before the love-hungry Treasure dragon was introduced." Dad said with a sigh and a shake of his head. "I fear the destructive husband and nerdy son will soon be extinct species."

Roman, who had curled around Papa's fingers, rolled his eyes. "You two are  _ soooo _ dramatic."

"I'd welcome you to the club but I'm pretty sure you founded it." Logan countered.

" _ Don't test me mortal. _ "

"I can literally step on you."

"No stepping on anyone!!" Papa said, distressed.

Roman let out a little burst of fire that just barely didn't reach Logan's nose.

"No fire either!"

"Yeah, that's my thing!" Dad protested.

Logan laughed at the scene in front of him, with Papa holding Roman closer to his chest both to protect Roman and protect Logan from his fire breath. Dad was pulling a vial out of his pocket and daring Roman to heat it up. Roman looked ready to do as he was asked and Papa looked even more worried.

Then he stopped laughing.

** " _ Fuck. _ "   
**


	7. Just a Lot of Drama

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Protective dragon drama is followed by protective Papa drama.  
> I'm just super-duper at properly pacing my chapters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Light overtones of danger, angsty backstory referencing, swearing, angry Papa, sad Papa, a lot of worry all around  
> Tell me if I need to add anything else!

Both Papa and Dad looked thrown off by the swear. "Sweetie? Um, what...?"

"Roman, for the love of all that is good, please tell me you told someone you were going to hitch a ride!"

Roman frowned. "Well, no, I didn't. Darcio thinks it's too dangerous out here for dragons but Patton thinks you're safe so I thought as long as I stuck with you I'd be fine. Doesn't mean Darcio would approve, and both Patton and Virgil would tattle."

Dad frowned. "Your logic is awfully flawed."

"That's not the problem- Dad, once the dragons realize Roman's not where he's supposed to be, they're going to think I took him!"

Papa frowned. "Well, that can't be too much of a problem, right? The dragons seem nice from what you've said."

Dad and Logan glanced at each other. "Um, Papa, let's just say that Darcio is very... protective of his family. And maybe not super trusting of humans."

Papa raised an eyebrow at the exchange of glances. "I'm going to worry about the obvious secret you two are keeping later. For now..." He frowned at Roman. "We should probably get you home."

"Sooner rather than later." Logan said with a glance at the sundial. He held out his hand, accepting the Treasure dragon back before abruptly getting out of his chair. "I'll be right back." Then he booked it out the door.

Logan hurried through the woods as best as he could in the dark, the faint glowing leaves helping him make sure he didn't lose track of where the stone circle was. He stopped the moment he got to it, nearly tripping over himself as he did so.

Crouching down, Logan lowered Roman to the ground past the circle. "Go on, Roman, run to Patton and tell him you went exploring or something."

"But it's such a long walk to the center of the deep woods."

Logan responded, unamused, "You can fly, and Darcio won't try to eat you if he sees you sneaking around at night."

"He might."

"I doubt it."

Roman sighed but leapt off Logan's hand, gliding the short distance to the ground to minimize the sound.

Apparently, it wasn't enough.

The sound of the leaf he landed on cracking, even ever-so-slightly, rang out like a gunshot in the empty woods. Instantly, Logan heard heavy footsteps making their way to their location.

"You should hide."

"I'm going to hide." Logan agreed, already making his way backwards towards the nearest non-glowing tree. Getting behind it, he realized that the leafy ground was too noisy. Even if he tried to stay still, he ran the huge risk of a single fidget giving away the fact he had been around when Roman miraculously reappeared. The tree, on the other hand, was running out of leaves and only had hard, non-crackling bark to sit on.

He'd have to climb the tree.

While Logan quickly jumped to grab the lowest tree branches, he registered between huge footfalls that Roman was jumping around in the leaves, making noise to cover his. Logan offered a silent thank you to the tiny impossibility.

Logan had just pulled himself into the tree, squishing himself between the various branches and holding his breath as the footfalls finally reached Roman. Just as they stopped, a loud voice Logan realized instantly was Darcio's boomed out,

"Roman! Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Then where have you been!?"

"Adventuring."

"And you didn't tell us?!"

"Well that just takes the adventure out of adventuring."

"It really doesn't." Darcio said, sounding exasperated.

"Darcio, I've disappeared plenty of times to chase a runaway leaf or something. Why are you so freaked out by this event?" Roman asked.

There was a moment of silence, broken by Roman's prompting of, "Well?"

"...I thought the human had taken you."

"I'd be surprised if I didn't see it coming from a mile away."

"Well you just disappeared, and Patton said you were probably fine, but Virgil said the last time he had seen you was right before you and Patton left to return the human outside of the circle-"

"Logan."

"Huh?"

"The human's name is Logan."

Darcio stomped once. "It doesn't matter! Human, Logan; I thought he had taken you!"

"I can breathe fire and, despite his repeat words that he could stomp on me, Logan is not fire resistant. I am perfectible capable of taking care of myself."

Darcio sighed before saying sadly, "I don't have to tell you what happened the last time I thought that."

Logan heard Roman sigh too. "Logan's one person, and he's a good one. I promise you. I-I won't ask you to trust him, but you have to at least stop distrusting him."

"I'm just worried. I won't lose you. Or Patton or Virgil."

"You won't, love, I promise."

Another moment of silence. "We should get back to them. Virgil's already anxious enough as is."

Roman responded, "Of course."

Logan waited until he couldn't hear any steps, and then another few minutes, before he slipped out of the tree and dashed home. He found Dad and Papa still at the kitchen table. Papa smiled wearily.

"Hiya, Logan."

_ Uh oh. First full name. _ Logan thought.

Dad pushed a mug at him. "I got you coffee."

_ And Dad's offering me preemptive coffee. I'm screwed _ .

Papa took a sip from his own steaming cup ( _ hot chocolate, Dad's trying to lessen the blow _ ) before he said, "So. How long?"

Logan feigned innocence. "How long since what?"

"How long have you two been keeping a secret from me?" Papa finished out. "I used to be able to know the minute one of you spoke to me; I need to figure out how badly I'm losing my touch."

Logan focused on his coffee as Dad quietly replied, "About a day, now."

"The hug was a traitor hug?"

"Well that seems a rude way of putting it." Papa raised an eyebrow. "...but yes." Dad finished, also looking at his coffee.

Papa took another chocolate sip. "Well then. What was the secret?"

Logan pressed his lips together. Any anger Papa might have for them lying was one thing to deal with. Avenging Papa going after Darcio, probably armed with nothing more than a burning passion to keep his family safe... that was a whole other level of shit hitting the fan.

"I can sit here all night." Papa said measuredly.

"It has to do with the dragons..." Logan trailed off quietly, not sure exactly how he was going to phrase what happened in the least Papa-provoking terms.

"I'm going to assume it isn't about the Treasure dragon."

"That would be correct." Dad confirmed.

"Then what was it?"

Logan decided the best way to deal with this was by ripping the bandage off. As quickly as possible. Preferably quicker.

"Oneofthemmayhavemildlyinjuriedme."

Papa looked directly at Logan, speaking very calmly, "What?"

"One of the dragons may... have... overreacted to my presence in the deep forest and may have... slightly... minorly, left an itty-bitty bruise."

"Which dragon?"

"Papa I'm not-"

"Which. Dragon?"

"...The Guardian dragon. Darcio."

Papa nodded slowly, taking another sip of his hot chocolate. Then, carefully placing the mug down, he lunged at the door.

Both Logan and Dad, expecting this response, also lunged out of their seats to grab him before he made it out of the house.

Given that Logan had been doing a lot of tree climbing recently, and Dad was used to foraging for resources, whereas Papa mostly sat in his office and made puns to his patients, it should have been very easy to get him back in his seat and talk him out of dragon murder.

It took ten minutes with two separate instances of Papa actually getting out of the door before they did.

Even then, it was just Papa and Logan sitting at the table, while Dad sat a bit further from them in front of the door.

"Please don't try to kill Darcio."

"Oh, I won't be  _ trying. _ "

Logan tapped on the table. "That doesn't make me feel better, Papa."

" _ He hurt you. _ "

"A fact I am well aware of."

" _ You didn't tell me. _ "

"Because I knew you'd instantly turn to murder."

Papa gestured wildly and seemingly with no purpose outside of to display his great annoyance. "I have the right to turn to murder! I'm your father, you should have told me!"

"I did tell  _ one _ father."

" _ Logan. _ "

"Not the time for wordplay, I see."

Given the way Papa looked like he was ready to ground Logan for life right before he went off and set the deep woods on fire, Logan probably should have been a little more repentant about his actions than he was sounding like.

Papa sighed and leaned on the table.

"Honey...?" Dad prompted quietly.

"I just... I sent you out there! I willingly and happily told you to keep up your observation and interaction with the dragons! And then one of them hurt you and it took me a day to realize-" Papa sunk further onto the table. "I'm an awful human being."

"What! No!" Logan said instantly, the switch from murderous parental unit to a deflated one instantly much more distressing than the possible lifetime grounding.

" _ And then I tried to murder a dragon. _ "

"For the sake of familial love." Dad argued.

"Murder is murder, Rem."

"I firmly believe you wouldn't have actually murdered Darcio." Dad continued. "Just chewed him out very very strongly. Possibly kicked him a few times."

_"Ohmygosh I would have_ **_kicked_** _a_ **_dragon_**."

Logan winced. "Let's back up for a second."

"Back to where I murdered the dragon?"

"Back to the part where you were just angry because you were worried. And because you love me."

"It's because I  _ do _ love you and I want you to be safe and not hurt by really cool dragons." Papa whined. "All my passions are spiraling rapidly out of control. I suck at  _ everything. _ "

"We are going in the wrong direction." Logan said.

Dad, deciding Papa was now the opposite of a flight risk, scooted his chair over to his husband. "You don't suck at everything."

"I'm pretty sure I do."

"Impossible."

"How so?"

"I have  _ very _ high standards for a husband." Dad said. "If you sucked at everything I never could have fallen in love with you. It's scientific fact that since I am desperately in love with you, you must actually be amazing at everything."

"That's not how science works."

"As a scientist who is very good at blowing things up I think I'm the expert on these things."

"I think that, too, is not how science works."

"Shhhhhhh." Dad said. "This is no time for logic."

"Then what time is it?" Papa asked, starting to sound tired.

"The time for hugs." Dad said, pulling Papa to his chest and resting his head on his shoulder. "Hugs for people who  _ didn't _ screw up and just have too much love to sometimes think straight."

"I never think straight."

"My apologies- to think gay."

Logan, recognizing his chance to escape any punishment for the night (because regardless of how Papa would deal with his reactions Logan had still tried to keep a secret from him and that never ended well), slowly got out of his chair and headed towards the door.

Papa sleepily turned into his husband's chest.

"I'm sleepy."

"It's hard being so perfect, I know." Dad said, rubbing Papa's back with one hand and hurrying Logan out the door with the other.

Logan did so happily, taking a second to pause on his way to his house to peek into the laboratory.

Yep.

It smelled like burnt lavender.


	8. The Dads Meet the Dragons!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The moment I like to believe you've all been waiting for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: I think there's a swear?, confrontation, minor panic over being a tube  
> Tell me if there's anything else I need to add!

"It'll be fine, Papa."

"I know, I know, just... maybe don't go today?"

Logan looked over his plate of breakfast. Dad was still in the lab cleaning something up, leaving him and Papa alone. And Papa, while no longer angry, was still very worried.

"I told Patton I'd be there today." Logan said.

"Could you possibly... tell him you're busy and come back? Without stepping over the line where Darcio lives?"

Logan sighed. "I would, Papa, but I have a feeling that you'd just ask the same thing tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that."

Papa frowned at his bacon. "Yeah, it would."

"You're allowed to be concerned, Papa, I just want to make sure you're not going to become one of those incredibly overprotective parents who never lets me leave the house."

"Well that would just be a little too drastic."

"But would you let me go back to the deep woods?"

Papa didn't answer.

Logan took another bite of his pancake, brow furrowed. Dad came in just then, breaking up the awkward silence to kiss Papa's cheek and steal a slice of his bacon.

"Reeeeeem that's  _ my _ bacon."

"I traded you a kiss."

"But can't I have bacon and a kiss?"

"I'm afraid you're asking for too much."

"Hey, Dad, do you still think it's safe for me to go into the deep woods?"

"Why are you asking?"

"To prove a point to Papa."

"Nope." Dad said, shaking his head as he moved back into the kitchen to steal a pancake. "Not getting tricked into that again."

"It'll go well this time, I promise!"

"Do not lie to me, nerd."

Defeated, Logan went back to eating his breakfast. While Dad and Papa ate their own breakfasts and debated the price of a kiss, Logan tried to figure out how to convince Papa that the deep woods were fine, really, and the dragon that might harm him was not going to go against Patton again.

"Hey, Papa," Logan said just as he finished his food, suddenly getting an idea, "what would it take for you to be okay with me going into the deep woods?"

Papa shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know. I'd have to know that you'd be safe, I guess."

Logan grinned. Dad raised an eyebrow.

"I don't trust that smile."

Logan got up and headed for the door, grabbing his satchel as he went. He paused in the doorway as he pushed it open and turned back towards his Dads.

"Field trip, anyone?"

Dad and Papa exchanged a glance before getting up and following their son into the woods.

(Like a five second time skip because narrating 'they walked to the white circle' is boring)

"Logan, sweetie, if your plan was to have us go meet this Darcio, you're less of a genius then I give you credit for." Dad said.

"Not Darcio..." Logan said, trailing off before he, still on the 'human' side of the white circle, called out, "Patton!"

A moment passed before the footsteps of Patton approaching could be heard. Logan realized instantly he must be in human-size, even before he appeared out of the woods.

"Hi, Logan!" he said cheerfully before noticing the people standing behind Logan. "Hello other humans!!"

" **_Fluffy!_ ** " Papa said immediately before, all his inhibitions about dragons momentarily stripped away, jumping over the white circle and hugging Patton.

Patton grinned. "I like this one a lot!"

"So was this a plan to show Papa you have dragon protection or to trick him into forgetting bad dragons exist with fluffy ones?" Dad whispered over to Logan.

"A little bit of both."

"Guys the Treasure dragon is here too!!!!"

"Yeah, he lives in Patton's hair."

" _!!!!! _ "

Logan laughed. "So, do you think the deep woods are safe for me yet?"

Papa, from where he was now hanging over Patton's back with Roman in his own hair, shrugged. "Well, I mean, Patton seems very, very nice, but he is a little small."

"Oh, this is just my small size!" Patton interjected. "What to see my real size?"

"Sure! Let me jus-"

Papa had started to move as if to get off of Patton's back. The Sky dragon, however, hadn't noticed, and had instead started growing back to his proper size with Papa still on his back.

After his original confusion, Papa looked pretty stoked to be high in the sky on the back of the fluffy dragon.

"Big fluffy dragon!" He yelled excitedly. He poked the top of his head. "Small scaly dragon!"

“Wait- Papa, did you just respond to Patton?”   
“Uh huh.”    
“I thought I was the only one who could do that…?” Logan wished he had Papa’s “Myths, History, and Everything in Between” book on hand, because he could have sworn it said all the recorded attempts to speak to dragons had respond in a lot of growling from the dragons and a lot of confusion for the human. Patton had seemed surprised they could communicate as well when Logan first met him.   
“Oh? Oh!” Papa said, realizing the gravity of the situation. He bit his lip in agonization for a second before he scrunched his face up in thought. “Maybe it’s my relation to you?”   
Logan frowned at the white circle line. “Maybe the line’s more magic than I originally thought.” He added.   
Dad shrugged. “I don’t know. Personally, I’m just amazing at reading lips.”   
“Dad, that is not how this works.”    
“It is now.”   
“I know another one!” Papa said. “I’m psychically linked to everything this fluffy!” He said happily, smooshing himself into Patton’s neck.

"Em, are you cheating on me!?"

"No!"

"Are you stealing my love and giving it to dragons!?"

"No!"

"Why you always lying?!"

"Pat, if you're much louder you're going to wake Darcio and he's still tired from all the pointless Roman goose chasing-" Virgil called out before appeared from the trees, his feet smoke as he floated in and completely solidified on the ground. He raised an eyebrow. "Guests?"

"My Dads." Logan said by way of explanation.

Dad gave him a mini wave. "Nice to meet you."

Papa was too busy trying to become one with the fluff to say hi.

"I can really see where you get your warm side from." Virgil said, glancing at Papa. "And your scientific side, well, I'm sure one of them has it."

"That would be me." Dad said, raising his hand. "And I'm insulted you didn't get that straight away."

Virgil raised an eyebrow. "Were the sunglasses supposed to give it away?"

"The  _ goggles _ may help but more importantly is the fact you didn't look at me and instantly say, 'that is a man who causes many explosions under the pretext of doing science.'"

Logan rolled his eyes. "Dad, you're missing your coffee to sip manically, remember? Plus, if those are goggles, you're straight."

" _My own son, how could you dare even_ **_insinuate_** _that I am anything other than a rainbow gay?_ "

"What's coffee?" Virgil asked, ignoring Dad's indignant statement.

Logan, knowing if he let Dad answer the question there'd be no end to the flood of excited information, cut in, "Something to help you stay up when you should be sleeping."

Virgil's eyes widened. "I need some."

"How poison resistant are you?"

Logan leaned against the nearest tree and sighed dramatically. "Guyyyyys you're stealing all my dragon friends."

"They're our dragon friends now." Dad said, stepping backwards towards Virgil. "Sorry, nerd, but this is the game. If my husband is going to abandon me for Sky dragon and Treasure dragon than I get to abandon my son for this coffee-needing dragon."

"That's not very fair."

"It's very fair."

"But, guys, what if we  _ share _ the dragons?" Papa called down from the back of Patton, where he was half-watching as Roman glided around his head.

"Unacceptable." Logan responded. "I found them first."

"Sharing is caring, sweetie."

"I have had to literally fight you, my father, for coffee."

"That's because coffee is precious."

"I'm your  _ son. _ "

"Coffee doesn't care who you are."

"And yet you're going to give some to the random dragon you just met?"

"I have decided this dragon is in desperate need of coffee. My benevolent nature is shining through."

Logan gestured at Virgil. "Never mind, you can have him."

"Wicked." Virgil said before looking at Dad. "Where does one get coffee?"

"It's back at my lab."

"That is where you are wrong, Dad." Logan corrected. "As the only remaining member of the Palevales, the others having disappeared mysteriously into the deep forest, the lab is now mine and so is the coffee."

" **_Traitor._ ** "

"Does that mean you've taken my fairytale collection, too?"

"I'm afraid so, Papa."

" **_I'll fight you._ ** "

"Why all the attention only after we've become distanced from each other via you two disappearing into the woods?"

"Because you threatened our beloved material possessions." Dad replied.

"All this feels like you're picking coffee and fairytales over me and, I'm not going to lie, I'm hurt."

"You  _ disowned _ us via trading us to dragons."

"Well, I mean," Logan pointed at Papa, "he traded himself away. And you were going to give a stranger-danger dragon coffee and not me so, y'know, what else was I supposed to do?"

"Fight!"

"Fight?!" Logan repeated, slightly incredulous at his Dad's answer.

"Fighting is the proper answer to all questions."

Papa looked at Dad. "Um, I don't really think so, no."

Dad rolled his eyes. "I didn't say it was the  _ only _ answer just the  _ proper _ one."

"I don't agree with that either."

"Well how else are we supposed to get out of this situation?" Dad asked, gesturing at Logan. "Our son has disowned us. He has taken our coffee and fairytale books and traded us to dragons. What can we do but fight?"

"And if we win the fight, what do we get?"

"Coffee, duh."

"What about my fairytale books?"

"A secondary issue."

Papa frowned. "Well, if your side isn't going to prioritize fairytale books, I'm going to make my own. We're fighting for fairytale books."

"Betrayal from my husband!"

Logan sighed. "I can be my own side as well. My side just wants my dragon friends to not be stolen from me."

"We're not stolen from you, Logan, we just have more friends!" Patton replied.

"He's a very needy child."

"Dad!

"And he's very bad with sharing." Dad continued.

Logan rolled his eyes before asking, "If this is a war, who are the dragons fighting for?"

"Coffee." Virgil said immediately.

Patton shifted a bit in place. "Well, Logan, I would like to fight for you, but I have to believe in sharing! And your Papa seems very nice and fairytale books sound very cool."

"So I'll assume Roman's going to stick with yo-"

"That is where you are wrong, mortal!" Roman said, gliding from where he had been messing with Papa to land on Logan's head.

"We really need to work on the mortal thing."

"Don't bicker with me right now, right after I have decided to fight for you!"

Logan smiled. "Well, I suppose that is nice of you."

"After all, without me, you'd lose immediately. No fight. You're too much of a nerdy wimp to win against  _ me _ and I doubt you'd fare much better against Virgil or Patton."

"Oh." Logan said. "I see."

"So," Logan went on, "Fighting for coffee is a disaster Dad and a Smoke dragon. Fighting for fairytale books is slightly-less disaster Papa and a Sky dragon. Fighting for the refusal to share is the least-disastrous Palevale, the son, and a tiny Treasure dragon."

"I object to the names." Dad spoke up. "The least disastrous Palevale is our potted plant, Jim, who has yet to do anything stupider than let us take care of him."

"I also object to my name being prefaced by 'tiny.'" Roman added.

"You're on my team and as such are bound to my naming conventions." Logan responded. "But to the Palevale thing I can be the least disastrous human Palevale."

"That interpretation is granted."

"So now it's time for war!" Dad said more excitedly than he should have, efficiently and quickly climbing onto Virgil's back.

Logan glanced between his parents, both on the backs of their dragons teammates.

"No." Roman said, before Logan could even get the thought out of his mouth.

Logan laughed. "But Roman, I'm just a lowly mortal, if I don't ride into battle on a  _ magnificent _ beast of legend then, I mean, we're doomed from the beginning."

"Well, as you continue to lovingly point out, I am small and would be crushed immediately."

"But, Roman, I thought," Logan snorted, "I thought you were some sort of  _ god _ compared to me, a simple  _ mortal, _ how could  _ I _ crush  _ you. _ "

"Will you ever let this go?"

"Never.”

In the mess that was the Palevales and the dragons trying to arrange a war, they hadn't noticed the Guardian dragon's approach. Roman was the first to catch it.

"Darcyyyyyyyy tell the mortal Logan to not mock me." Roman whined. "It's mean."

Logan tried not to jerk his head to hard when he realize Darcio was standing on the edge of the messy circle the group had formed.

"Hello Darcio." He said, hoping against hope that Roman's plea for no-more-mockery would not equal him getting blown into another tree. In front of his Dads.

Darcio, however, ignored the plea from Roman, opting to focus on Papa and Dad. "More humans?" He asked, sounding suspicious.

"Um, yeah." Logan answered, pointing to his Dads in turn. "This is my Dad, Remy, and my Papa, Emile."

"Why are they here?"

"Uhhh. Because my Dad is also a scientist, and my Papa has an obsession with dragons."

Logan didn't really want to mention they were there to determine how safe it was for Logan to keep coming to the deep forest. Or that the reasoning behind it was Darcio.

His parents, it seemed, had different plans.

"So!" Papa said in a tone Logan instantly recognized as pseudo-cheery. "You're Darcio!"

Dad sized him up from behind his 'goggles.' "We've heard a lot about you."

Darcio raised an eyebrow and glanced at Logan. "Is that so?"

Logan tried to not make his smile look too fake. "I talk about all of you guys. Dragons are pretty exciting and, especially in my household, I am not allowed to skip on details."

"He's right." Papa said. "No detail skipping whatsoever. He's been vibrant enough in his descriptions we practically know everything that's thus far happened."

"Yep." Dad popped the 'p.'

Logan moved to the tree, sitting down against it. When Roman dangled into his face to look at him questioningly, Logan said, "When this begins to go poorly, as it will, I'd prefer to eliminate the chance of me once more being slammed into a tree.”

"If he's been that vibrant, there can't be that much need for you to come here, then." Darcio responded.

"Well they say you can't know the whole story til you've heard both sides." Papa replied evenly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Darcio asked.

"We just didn't want to only take it from Logan why he got hurt the first day he properly visited you." Dad said innocently, breaking any possibility that Logan could get them out before they reached that... unfortunate event. "He has a tendency to downplay that sort of thing."

Darcio growled lowly and pawed at the ground. "Oh. That."

"Yes, that." Papa repeated. "Care to explain?"

"Papa..."

"We've heard your side of the story, Logan." Papa said kindly. "I want to hear the other one." The additional statement sounded less kind.

Logan leaned back on the tree and closed his eyes, fully expecting Darcio to rant about protecting his friends or something. Not that Logan would blame him if he did, but his parents might not like the uncivil tone. At least, Papa wouldn't care much for it.

What he wasn't expecting was, after a few seconds of awkward silence, was for Darcio to say, "I apologize."

Logan opened his eyes, glancing between his Dads and Darcio, trying to gauge their reactions. Darcio looked genuine with his apology. Dad and Papa were still patiently waiting for Darcio to continue.

"We have lived in these woods alone for decades now, if not centuries. We don't really keep track of time. Given the past relations we have had with your species, and the suddenness of meeting a human again, I reacted extremely poorly when Patton presented him to me." Darcio said formally, yet not sounding at all like he was faking his words. "I can assure you it will not happen again, given your son maintains, as he has, respect for us. As I'm sure you can understand, I am very protective of my loved ones."

"We appreciate the assurances." Papa said, sounding at least a little relieved that Darcio was being agreeable. "We're just worried. As we're sure you can understand."

"Is there anything you'd like me to do to make it clear I truly mean no more harm to Logan?" Darcio asked earnestly.

Papa didn't seem to have an immediate answer, but Dad did.

"The other dragons can go smaller. Human size, so they don't tower over him." He said, gesturing at Darcio and then the ground. "So could you just... be human size around him? So at the very least you can't crush him with one foot?"

After a moment of contemplation, Darcio nodded.

Like Patton and Roman, Darcio's scales folded over each other as he shrunk. His yellow scales were the only exception; shrinking in size but not moving from their position as he went from huge scary dragon to…

...a snake. Logan choked down a laugh at Darcio's small form. To be fair, he was a  _ huge _ snake, somehow with a strong enough noodle body to support his head at human height, with just coils of scaly skin spreading down from his neck, the yellow scales still stopping only a little ways down it.

But he was still a snake.

"I'm sorry, I thought you'd become a mini dragon." Dad said, sliding off of Virgil's back to stand in front of Darcio, smiling broadly. "Instead, you become a snake?"

"Not technically." Darcio said, shifting his body a bit to reveal four stubby little arms, which he waved for emphasis. "I have arms."

"They're so tiny you might as well be a snake though." Dad said, turning back towards Patton and Papa. "Hey, Em! Come see Darcio's tiny legs!"

Papa, however, had moved to hang off the other side of Patton, not looking at Darcio. "I think I prefered him when he was in dragon form."

"Mind my husband." Dad said with a wave of his hand. "He has an odd fear of snakes."

"They're tube-y and slither-y and scary!"

"Well I'm not a completely tube." Darcio said, waving his nubs more. "I'm just like... 95% tube."

"That's bad enough!! And you're still slither-y and scary! And now you can breathe fire!"

"I actually just breathe very strong wind."

"Still bad!"

"But, Em, have you ever considered you yourself are just multiple tubes stuck together?"

"Eek!" Papa's squeal was followed by Patton swiftly crouching to lessen the distance Papa fell as he, realizing he was all tubes, accidentally lost his grip. Luckily, he only fell about three feet.

Dad hurried over immediately. "Em, honey, you have to stop with this fear of tubes."

_ "Why has no one told me I am tube?" _

"Few people find it relevant."

"But  _ I do. _ "

"Em, are you honestly worried about the fact you are tubes, or do you just want to get away from the snake?"

"...I'm not going to answer that."

Dad sighed and looked at Logan. "I'm going to take your snake-fearing Papa home before he gets more dramatic with being a tube. Don't be back after sunset, don't be mean to the dragons, don't eat anymore mushrooms, etc etc etc."

"Dad, we both know the only one of us who've eaten random mushrooms is you."

"Shhhhhhh, child, I have to deal with a hysteric man."

"I am not hysteric!"

"Oh, really?" Dad beckoned Darcio. "Why don't you say that to our nice snake dragon friend?"

"Okay I'm hysterical take me  _ home. _ "

Logan shook his head and turned to Darcio. "It's not personal."

"So I gathered; no worries."

Dad pulled Papa up. "Okay, come on."

"My leg hurts." Papa whined. "I don't want to walk on it."

"Does it hurt that badly, or do you just want me to carry you?"

Papa dramatically leaned on Dad. "Guess."

Roman jumped lightly on Logan's head while Dad, with a sigh that made it seem like he actually wasn't perfectly happy to carry Papa, scooped up Papa.

"Your Dads are so gay!" He said excitedly.

"Was it the two men being in love that gave it away?" Logan asked jokingly.

"It was the  _ drama. _ "

Logan carefully moved Roman from his head to his hand. "So I assume you're the gayest dragon?"

"Mayhaps you meant to wound me with that but I take no greater pride than in my dramatic flare and in my gayness."

"You should have seen him when he tried to dye his scales rainbow using berries from beyond the white line." Virgil said with a smirk. "Not only did he get chewed out for crossing the stones, he just looked like a mob had thrown rotten food at him. Smelled like it too, after a couple of days."

"Yeah, my rainbow plan did not go as hoped." Roman said, sounding annoyed.

"So, what, he just gave up?" Logan asked, interest piqued. "I know I haven't known him that long but that doesn't sound like what Roman would do."

"You're right, Logan, I didn't give up!"

Virgil groaned. " _ Please _ don't start unearthing these memories. I have just finally forgotten them."

Logan raised his eyebrows. "Do tell."

Roman grinned widely. "I started courting all of my loves!"

"It was  _ awful. _ Roman wrote his own songs and everything." Virgil complained.

"It was incredibly sweet, Vee!" Patton matched.

"He swore to us he'd trap the rainbow and give it to us as, quote, 'the gayest sign of love.'" Darcio chipped in with a small smile. "He had exactly zero plans on how to do this, however, and ended up just trying to fly into the rainbow every time after it rained."

"As you can guess," Virgil said with a grimace, "that went exceedingly well."

"I swear I caught it once!" Roman protested.

Patton sunk down to his human size to nudge Roman's off Logan's hand and back onto his own head, saying, "Sure you did, Ro-Ro."

"Padre, your tone sounds as if you  _ don't _ believe I caught the rainbow."

"Well I really do think you might have caught the rainbow!"

" _ You are avoiding the actual problem. _ "

"Well, Roman, you can't really  _ catch _ the rainbow." Patton said slowly. "It is just refracted light."

"I have been  _ betrayed. _ Patton I thought you  _ believed in me. _ "

"Of course I do, kiddo! I just... can't exactly believe you could have done that."

Roman frowned. "I want a new boyfriend's hair to hide in."

"I'm afraid Patton's the only one with the fur to hide in." Darcio replied. "Looks like you're stuck with your softest boyfriend forever."

"I'm only the softest dragon physically, though." Patton protested. "Because we all know who's the  _ real _ softie of the group?"

All the dragons glanced between each other.

"All of you!!!!"

"Patton!" All three of them said at the same time, somehow all equally caught off guard by the response. Logan shifted in place where he was sitting against his tree, quite sure at this point the gay messes of dragons had forgotten he was there.

Slowly, while the dragons continued to over-compliment each other, Logan pulled out his notebook and quill.

_ Relations - Dragons - All gay messes for each other _

_ Relations - Dragons and Dads - when one group of gays leaves an environment the other group will immediately become as gay as possible to fill the space _

Putting his notebook, now slightly cursed but mostly blessed, back in his satchel along with the quill and ink, Logan tuned back into the conversation between the dragons.

"Well if I'm the sweetest, Virgil's the sexiest!"

"Why would yo-"

"Because he's always smoking!"

Virgil spluttered. " **_Patton_ ** "

"How long have you guys been gay-ing?" Logan asked, sure that time must have passed but the deep woods had thrown his sense of it off.

"Not long enough, probably." Roman replied. "We were just getting into the puns."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "How often do you guys end up in these gay compliment loops?"

"We gave up trying to keep count a while ago." Virgil replied. "Roman has a bad tendency to start them."

"Gay compliment loops are the opposite of bad, Virge!" Roman replied.

"I said it was a bad tendency, not a bad result."

"So... you  _ do _ enjoy the gay compliment loops?"

Logan wasn't sure, up to that moment, if it was possible for dragons to blush. While Virgil's cheeks didn't flush red, they did start turning into smoke, and Logan felt the question he had never asked was now confirmed.

"Roman, I hate you."

"Suuuuuuuuuure." Roman teased.

Logan chuckled as he got up. "Okay, well, you guys enjoy gay-ing. I've got to get back to the other disaster gays in my life."

"Bye Logan!" Patton and Roman said at the same time in similar sing-song tones. Virgil nodded. Darcio inclined his head.

Logan headed off, not very far given they hadn't migrated far from the white line, and got to his house only to burst open the door and say, "I found even more disastrous gays than you two!"

"Impossible!" Dad argued immediately. He was, at that moment, holding Papa on his shoulders while the pastel-haired man painted something on the ceiling.

Papa looked down, revealing he had smudges of rainbow all over his face. "I agree. We're pretty disastrous. You must remember Jim is currently the most stable member of this family."

Logan glanced at the overgrown weeping fig in the corner. "I didn't say you  _ weren't _ disastrous, just that the four dragons have beaten you in being the  _ most _ disastrous."

"I find that highly doubtful." Dad replied. "Must I remind you I made lavender an explosive component?"

"What does that have to do with you and Papa being disastrous gays?"

Dad managed to knock his goggles to the end of his nose to look at Logan over them. "I'm gay and I cause disasters."

Logan shrugged. "I dunno Dad, you and Papa are touching each other right now and I don't currently see any disasters happening. How gay are you  _ really? _ "

"My son, my child, the nerd I have  _ raised _ from the  _ crib _ that you would doubt me in this way,  _ hurt _ me in this way-"

"DISASTER ALERT."

Dad was torn from his rant to look up, finding that Papa had started to wildly shake in place.

"Em, I'm going to drop you if you keep this up!"

"Then there will be a DISASTER!"

Dad looked at Logan, who had put a hand over his mouth to hide his chuckling.

"I blame you for this."

Logan didn't even get a chance to innocently ask, "For what?" Before both Papa and Dad came tumbling down.

"Ouch." Dad said, rolling his neck around. "Em, I know we need to prove to the boy we are The Disaster Gays but come on."

Papa rolled over from where he had fallen on the ground so that his face was over Dad's. He pressed Dad's nose with his paintbrush, currently a bright pink to match Dad's hair.

"Boop."

Logan took a moment to look up at the ceiling, finding that, alongside the stars, Papa had started painting in the dragons. He had been using the pink to highlight the red of Treasure dragon Roman.

When he glanced back down, he found Dad had managed to get one of his fingers in a nearby bucket of gold paint and had painted a golden heart on Papa's cheek.

"Would you guys not be gay for, like, five minutes?"

"You said we weren't disaster gay-ing enough, now we're being too gay." Dad said, having now got paint on all his fingers to paint a rainbow across Papa's forehead. "Pick a side."

"I just wanted to inform you guys that as disastrous as you are, apparently you can't beat a group of super old dragons who live alone in a forest."

Papa hummed in agreement, drawing a smiley face on Dad's cheeks. "I've got it. Rem, sweetheart, we have to become full time hermits."

"You're right, love. We can perfect our gay in the isolation." He glanced at Logan. "The nerd will have to move."

"Well that's rude." Logan said, mock-hurt.

"You've challenged our position as the gayest disasters. Legally, we can't have you living on our property."

"Well, just to spite you, I'm now going to  _ sleep _ on your property. And before that, I'm going to steal  _ your _ food to eat."

"Never!" Dad said vehemently. "Em, stop him!"

"One minute. I've got to finish drawing hearts on your eyelids." Papa returned, having gotten a quill to careful etch the hearts on.

"He's going to get our  _ food. _ "

"Well, I've got all the  _ honey _ I need."

"Now is not the time for puns!"

"It's always the time for puns."

By the time Logan re-emerged from the kitchen, carrying a sandwich he had already started eating, he found Papa had moved from Dad's eyelids to working on his arms.

"Oh, Dad, getting tattoos?" Logan teased. "Very edgy of you."

"These tattoos are being given to me by a literal teddy bear smudged in paint. This is about as edgy as a blanket."

"That's still got four edges, Rem." Papa said offhandedly.

"You get the point."

"No, I'm just holding the point." Papa responded, briefly lifting the quill to once more boop Remy's nose.

"Mhmhp." Dad said, curling up so that his arms were still reachable by Papa but he was also snuggling into Papa at the same time. "You tell too many puns, Em."

"Can't tell too many if there isn't a limit." Papa responded.

"There is a limit and it's my limit."

"What's your limit?"

"You passed it after the first two."

"So you're done with the puns?"

" _ Oh no. _ "

"Because if the puns are getting on your nerves, I can keep them in reserve."

" _ I've activated poetry Emile. _ "

Logan crammed the last of the sandwich in his mouth. "That's my cue to leave."

"Nerd, don't you dare abandon me."

Logan chuckled. "Dad, don't look me in the eye and act like you don't love pun  **_and_ ** poetry Papa."

"Yeah, Rem, tell the truth- no need to act so aloof."

"If I say I love you, will you stop?"

"Take a guess, and make it your best."

"The answer is no."

"Ring-ding."

"That's a cheat rhyme."

Logan hurried out of the house before Dad could go to his time-honoured tradition of kissing Papa to get him to stop rhyming. Before heading to his own house, however, he stopped by the lab.

There were a few things he had to collect.


	9. The Tragic Backstory that had to come up eventually

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I try (and mostly fail) to write convincing angst.  
> More important, Roman becomes gay(er) on the outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Swearing, mentions of violence, mentions of death, mentions of injury, mention of blood  
> If I need to add anything, let me know!

Logan was halfway through the deep woods (having decided that, with Darcio relatively cool with him being around, he was good to just go looking for Patton instead of the other way around) when he ran into the Guardian dragon himself. When Darcio saw him, he instantly transformed into his snake form.

"You don't have to do that if you don't want to." Logan said, watching as Darcio shook his entire body, wiggling across the ground as he did so.

"It's no problem." The now snake-dragon said. "Your Dads seem to prefer this anyways."

"I'm, eh, sorry about yesterday." Logan said. "My parents are easily concerned and get over protective just as easily."

Darcio waved him off with one of his nubs. "It's fine. I understand the feeling."

Logan glanced in the direction of the pond, assuming the other dragons were there. "They're a family worth protecting."

Darcio laughing slightly. "You've got that right, Logan."

"How long have you been living here, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Like I said, we don't really keep track, but... I don't know. It's probably been the majority of most of our lives, I can tell you that."

Logan frowned. "That's awful."

Darcio shrugged. "It's not that bad. We've got enough to eat, shelter, each other. Everything considered, we're doing alright."

"Did there used to be a lot of dragons?" Logan asked after a second of silence.

Darcio looked at the ground with a sigh. "Thousands. Not as many of us as humans, but we had our fair claim on the Earth."

"I assume you just lived in peace?" Logan asked. "It seems hard to imagine people trying to team up against a mass of fire/wind breathing dragons."

"It was like that for a while." Darcio answered.

"What changed?"

"It... it was a lot of things. Out-of-line dragons who angered shepherds for stealing their flocks. Humans who preached the dragons were unnatural or dangerous finally reaching a few too many ears. Our eggs getting poached and humans getting mad when the stolen babies didn't act like a common pet." Darcio sighed. "Things just went from good to bad quicker than should have been expected, and we weren't prepared."

"What happened?" Logan asked immediately before correcting, "Erm, you don't have to answer that, you probably shouldn't answer that, sorry-"

"No, it's fine." Darcio responded. "I've had plenty of time to sit on it, after all. Besides after how I reacted on day one... I owe you an explanation."

"You owe me nothing."

"I owe your parents, then." Darcio said. "Though whether you pass the story along or not is up to you."

Logan still wanted to protest Darcio telling him, mostly because whatever the story was it didn't take a genius to figure out it was personal and not really fun to talk about, but the Guardian dragon seemed decided and Logan found it doubtful he could dissuade him now.

Darcio settled down into a large coil on the ground and Logan, feeling awkward being the one to tower over the other, took a seat beside him.

"I wanted to protect my pack." Darcio began with no huzzah. "It was just me and others of my species back then. I was the alpha in the group. It was my job to keep them safe.

"It wasn't that hard. We just kept hiding. We went to a few different forests, different caves, just tried to avoid where the mob was heading. We were doing great, actually, given how many different dragon packs had been... captured."

Darcio paused. Logan let the silence draw for a few minutes before he prompted, "But?"

"We ran into a bump in the plan. It was mostly fine, most of us got away."

"Most?"

"...my mate got caught."

Logan bit his tongue. "I'm so sorry."

"That wasn't the end of it." Darcio laughed bitterly. "Though that part was my fault."

Logan waited.

"I... I went after him. I should have stayed with the pack. They were my responsibility. But I, I just  _ had _ to go after him. In that moment I felt he was more my responsibility than the pack.

"Unsurprisingly, it went terribly.

"By the time I got to the village we had been caught up at..." Darcio paused again, inhaling sharply before he continued, "My mate was already dead. I was... devastated. I should have left then. It was my chance to get back to my pack. But I wanted revenge."

Logan flinched back slightly at the fire in Darcio's eyes when he said that. It was clear that the old wounds hadn't healed.

But then the fire died as quickly as it had appeared. "That was another mistake. The humans were well prepared, and they didn't have anything better to do than fight. I... I did escape. But only after I got a handful of catapults of fire flung at me. Dragon scales are quite fire resistant, but, well, the balls of fire hurled at me were made of broken metal and wood. Combined with the fire... well, there's a reason I have yellow scales."

"Took out your eye, too?" Logan asked hesitantly, the yellow scales that were healed directly over one of Darcio's eyes suddenly even more clashing with his mossy skin.

"Yeah." Darcio nodded. "Hurt like Hell but I was too focused on getting back to my pack to care. Except..." Darcio stopped, his voice sounding choked. "Except... I was too late."

Logan didn't have to ask what he meant by too late.

"Um, after that I just sort of wandered. As a lone dragon I could avoid the mobs easier, and I did. Re-growing scales takes a while anyways, so a lot of the smaller groups of humans saw the blood and cracked scales and, well, didn't think it wise to battle me."

"Makes sense." Logan said quietly.

"I met the others at various points in my wanderings." Darcio continued. "Roman had been cornered by some stupid kids, messing around with him like he was some sort of doll to be pulled apart and put back together." He snarled. "They were incredibly easy to scare off and after that- well, I told Roman to get lost, but he was very bad at taking the hint. I didn't have enough heart to scare him off once he made a mini home on my head.

"Virgil had gotten separated from his group after they disappeared in smoke when their home in the forest got burned. We- me and Roman- had been cornered by a huge mob when he had come down from the sky, going from smoke to dragon in a few seconds and scaring them away basically with his mere presence." Darcio frowned.

"He'd never tell you, but he hated that they feared him. After all the years of being treated like a god's chosen guardian, the switch from reverence to utter fear hurt him. After he saved us, Roman convinced him to stay with us. To this day, I'll never let Roman forget it was all because he thought Virgil was hot."

"And Patton, well..." A tiny smile formed on Darcio's face. "He was fluffy. We basically just adopted him on the spot. Of course, you have to understand that Patton's parents had left him when he was a young dragon. He had always been alone. He was surprisingly and yet completely smitten with the idea of having a family, even one as makeshift and hopeless as what me, Roman, and Virgil were at the time."

Logan nodded. "And then?"

"And then we found this forest." Darcio said with a gesture at the area. "At the time, there was no village nearby. It was so isolated we thought there'd never be one. But to be safe..."

"You set up the white stone circle?"

Darcio turned to look at Logan for the first time during their talk. "No. We promised to stay inside the white circle. We weren't the ones to put it up."

"Oh." Logan said, surprised. "I just assumed, since you had always stayed behind it,"

Darcio shook his head. "Consequence of the circle, not the other way around."

"Huh." Logan said, still confused as Darcio went on,

"When the humans did show up to start building a village, we didn't know about it until some started wandering the forest. Upon seeing them coming, we hid, ready to attack but..." Darcio shook his head. "They didn't want to cross the line. Must have been some superstition at the time. I don't know. All that matters is that it stuck. No humans crossed the line and for safety reasons, we didn't either."

"So that's it?"

"Basically. Until you wandered over for, what, flowers? it was just us over here. And we were fine with that." Darcio turned his head to look in the direction out of the forest. "Not that we ever stopped wondering what happened to everyone else, but, well, that was the sacrifice we made to stay safe."

Logan nodded, and they sat in silence for a bit. From the center of the woods, Logan could hear leaves crackling as the other dragons messed about.

"Darcio... I'm so, so sorry." Logan said, breaking the silence. "If I had known-"

"You couldn't have." Darcio cut in instantly. "The fact you wanted to explore and discover is no one's fault, but my reaction to it was. Just... so many years had passed, but I still only had one memory of humans. Patton's always been the kindest of us, and I was just afraid he was falling for pretenses."

"I would never."

"I know that now." Darcio smiled at Logan. "You're a good guy, Logan. So are your Dads. As much as we love each other, the four of us have been in need of new company for a while, and you're some of the best we could have had."

Logan smiled back. "I'm happy to know that, as the first human you've seen in decades, you've already deemed me some of the highest available."

"Well, you've offended Princey, made friends with Patton, and haven't told Virgil's he's a cynical monster." Darcio replied. "You've already met a good amount of the required standards."

"What happens to those standards if I hug the snake?" Logan asked, before sheepishly adding, "You sound like you could use a hug."

"You don't seem like much of a hugger."

"Not really, but my Papa seems to think hugs solve everything. That's highly unlikely but it’s got to at least lessen the blow a bit, right?"

"It's kind of hard to hug a snake."

"Then you hug me and I'll pat your head and we'll never tell anyone it happened."

"...I think hugging the snake makes you a top-tier person, actually."

Logan and Darcio's plan to hug and pat the  snek snake went surprisingly well, given mostly that no one saw them do it, and as such there was no evidence afterwards.

Promptly pretending nothing happened, Darcio asked, "So, what wildness do you have planned for today?"

"Do you really want to know?"

"Now that you say it, no, but better to be prepared I suppose."

Logan grinned and opened up his satchel, pulling out various vials and beakers. "I've got some paint, so that Roman can actually be rainbow, and some coffee to screw Virgil up."

"Logan, what are you going to do to my family?"

"I don't know yet but you said I was a top-tier person so it must be a good thing."

Darcio rolled his eyes. "I'm going to regret this."

"Probably." Logan agreed as he got up and started towards the pond, Darcio slithering behind alongside him.

They arrived to find Virgil on top of the rock pile, a few parts of him smoky to allow for the way he twisted himself around the rocks. Roman was on Patton's head, and Patton himself was seated a little ways in front of the stone pile.

"Oh, good, Darcy; tell Virgil to stop hogging the house!"

"Why is Virgil hogging the house?"

Virgil shrugged, an odd action given it required his shoulders and front arms to quickly switch between smoky and materialized. "Because Roman wants to go inside and I don't wanna let him in."

"Have you ever considered not being a petty monster?"

Virgil narrowed his eyes as if in deep thought. "I have, and I've decided it’s just not the path for me. Thank you for the offer, however."

Roman pouted. "Darccyyyyyyyyyyyy."

"I'm afraid I can't help you, Roman." Darcio said. "I have to respect the life path Virgil has picked."

"But that life path has inconvenienced me."

"'Tis the sad effect of my line of work." Virgil mocked.

Roman sighed. "No one loves me."

"Ro!"

"Only Patton loves me."

"Can I get added to that list?" Logan asked.

Roman raised an eyebrow. "What do you offer?"

Logan pulled out the seven vials of colour he had and the painting quill he had brought just for this purpose. "I offer you the chance to actually become the rainbow."

"YOU ARE ADDED TO THE LIST!"

"Someone's playing favorites." Virgil said. Logan turned and grinned at him.

"I got you something too." He said, pulling out two large beakers filled with dark, brown liquid. He pulled the lids off. "If you still care for a taste, this is some of the coffee I believe isn't poisoned."

"How much of it is?" Virgil asked, looking concerned even as Logan put the beakers down in front of the rock pile.

"I don't know; three fourths of it? Dad flagrantly abuses his mild immunity to poison."

"Your Dad should be dead."

Logan nodded. "Me and Papa agree the universe gave him light poison immunity because it knew he would definitely die otherwise."

Virgil tilted his head. "Okay then." He slowly reached his neck forward, towards the coffee. He paused before it. "Sure it isn't poisonous?"

"Dad wouldn't have tried to fight me for it if it was."

"Okay then." Virgil leaned forward a bit more and took a sip.

It was all, figuratively, downhill from there.

While Logan worked on carefully painting Roman's scales (and afterwards painting Patton's horns and claws), Virgil finished the coffee and got much more hyper than, according to Darcio, he had ever been.

"Virgil, stop terrorizing me!!"

Logan couldn't help but laugh from where he was working on Patton's second horn as the Virgil, switching rapidly between smoke and dragon form, chased Roman around the clearing. Roman was glittering like the rainbow he was every time he passed through a ray of sunlight, a fact he couldn't appreciate much at the moment.

Virgil had yet to give a reason to why he was terrorizing Roman, but Logan blamed it on the coffee.

Darcio was also being useless in it all, having taken up Virgil's previous place coiled around the rock pile. Fully stretched out, the snake Guardian dragon was surprisingly long, complexly wrapped around just about every single rock, some of them twice.

"And... there!" Logan said, pulling away from Patton's second horn. His drawing may be shit, but he was very good at patterns. Filling in each of Roman's scales with a different colour? Easy. Putting line after line of each colour around Patton's horn? Simple.

Yet they both looked very fetching, if Logan did say so himself.

Patton instantly trotted over to the pond, peering in at his horns. "I love them!!"

Logan grinned at Patton's reflection. "Great! Because I'm not sure how permanent this paint is and you may be stuck with it for a bit."

"Worth it!" Roman yelled as he quickly flitted by before Virgil did as well, turning to smoke literally a second before ramming into Patton and Logan. He re-materialized immediately afterwards, leaving a breeze in his wake.

"I'm not sure if you should ever give him coffee again." Darcio observed from his spot on the rocks.

"I think I'm going to regardless of how smart it is."

Darcio raised an eyebrow. "Logan, you are a menace to the dragon community."

"I thought I was a good human?"

"Somehow you're both and it's a very dangerous combination.”

Logan laughed again before glancing up at the sky. "I've got to go. Sunset and all."

"I'll take you to the white circle." Patton said, shrinking down. Luckily, the rainbow paint layered properly, and didn't mess itself up like Logan had worried it might.

Patton went away from the group relatively quickly, arriving at the white circle in no time at all. Logan climbed off.

“Thanks for the ride, Patton." Logan said.

"No problem, Logan! Oh, and I just wanted to say thanks for earlier."

"Bringing the paints and coffee was no trouble-"

"Oh, no, not that. Before that." Patton said with a wink.

Logan tilted his head, confused, before he realized what we being hinted at.

"You didn't see that."

"Suuuuuure I didn't." Patton said, winking again.

"Patton, you cannot tell  _ anyone. _ "

"Tell them what? That you hugge-"

"Nope, no, that's all, don't continue that thought." Logan said, waving his hands while looking around for eavesdroppers. "My Papa will never let me hear the end of it on any level!"

Patton had a huge grin as he nodded. "Got it. I won't mention anything."

"I don't trust you."

Patton looked shocked. "What do you mean?!"

"I mean you and my Papa appear to be the same in the regard you'll swear not to tell my secret with the same smile Dad uses before he demands blackmail and then accidentally tell it while getting excited about something else."

"Well, I'll be extra careful to not tell this one."

"Thank you, Patton."

"Please," Patton said, "call me Pat."

Logan smiled. "Alright, Pat. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye, Lo!"

"Did you just want me to call you Pat so you had the right to use nicknames too?"

"...maybeeeeee."

Logan shook his head and, with another wave, headed off.

"Bye-bye, Lo!!!"

Dinner was normal enough, given that this time there was no theft.

What was more abnormal was afterwards when, after clearing the table, Papa happily exclaimed, "Stargazing night!"

Logan smiled. They hadn't done a stargazing night in a while, mostly since Logan had been busy observing dragons and making leaves into light sources (a project he had just recently perfected, a few nights before he started talking with Patton. Berry picking was going on handsomely in the village) to do so. He was now free, however, and very ready to stargaze.

"Let me grab my jacket." Dad said, moving towards the living room. His arms were still covered in the paint Papa had applied the other day, rainbow colours of dragons and explosions, and he had been proudly showing them off to everyone all day. They had contributed to why he continued to randomly move his arms, every movement seemingly making the dragons ripple in flight and the explosions actually explode. A long hot-and-pastel pink dragon Logan had thought was just wrapped around his arm had at some point in the day migrated to half Dad’s face.

"Orrrrr you could not." Papa said. Apparently he enjoyed seeing the artwork, too.

"But, Em, what if I freeze?"

Papa plastered himself to Dad's side. "I won't let you."

"Dads!" Logan said, mockingly outraged. "Not in front of Tim!"

Seemingly to spite him and Tim, Logan's Dads then kissed. Dad even stuck his tongue out at Logan afterwards.

"You two are about as mature as five year olds."

"Bold of you to assume we're not three year olds."

"Come on, gays, let's just stargaze."

"But, Logan, lying underneath the stars... us snuggling for warmth... isn’t that even more gay?" Papa said with a wink.

"Me and Tim will sit a few feet from you, no worries."

"Are you taking Tim outside with us?" Dad teased.

Logan picked up the plant immediately. "Yes."

"And  _ we're _ the five year olds."

Logan patted Tim's pot. "To the roof we go."

"How are you going to get Tim onto the roof?"

"Magic, probably."

What Logan actually ended up doing was using one hand to grip Tim while he half-climbed, half-jumped his way up the side of the lab onto its flat roof, where Papa and Dad (who had easily beat the two of them given the unfair advantage of having twice and arms and legs) had already laid out a blanket to lie and gaze on.

They had been stretched out on the blanket for roughly half an hour, randomly pointing out constellations from separate sides (Logan had stayed true to his word- while Dad and Papa gayly cuddled, Logan randomly poked Tim and pointed at the stars as if he could see them) when Logan spoke up.

"Do you guys think there are any other dragons still alive?" He asked. "Outside of the four we've already found, of course.”

"Well, in theory, I suppose there must be, right?" Papa said slowly. "It'd be a little odd if we just happened to be living near the only dragons left in the world."

"Do you think they've also hidden in forests around the world?" Logan followed.

"Very likely." Dad replied. "Why are you asking about it?"

"I was talking with Darcio a little bit about the world before there weren't dragons." Logan said, frowning at the sky. "He said there were thousands. They- they can't all be dead, can they?"

"I do hope not." Papa said wistfully. "It'd be nice to meet more dragons."

"Yeah." Logan went back to just focusing on the stars. "It would be."


	10. EXPERIMENTS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly a filler chapter. Logan makes science mistakes, and other people and dragons are gay.  
> AKA 99% of this fic, honestly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Swearing, acid mention, attempt to drink acid mention, bees  
> Tell me if I should add anything else!

"Logan, uh, what are you doing?"

Logan looked up from where he was angling one of Papa's knives underneath a white stone. Virgil was looking concerned as to what, exactly, he was attempting to accomplish.

"Trying to determine the origin of the white stone circle."

"And that knife is going to help how, exactly?"

Logan looked back down at his work. "I'm going to see if I can wedge a stone out of the line. I attempted to just move it with my hand, but it didn't work."

"And the knife will, because...?"

"Metal is stronger than me."

Virgil settled down, careful to be out of the way of the potentially dangerous stone. "Well, count me interested."

Logan nodded as he pushed the knife a little deeper underneath the pebble.

It had been a few days since the stargazing, but Logan hadn't been quick to forget his question to the stars. Asking where the other dragons had gone had only brought about more questions-

When did people stop hunting the dragons? Had they only hunted the dragons? When did the dragons go so extinct they had become only myths? What were the white circles? Who originally set them up? According to Darcio, the woods had always been empty other than themselves and the pond, so where did the original builders go? Why were the woods empty? Why was the pond not?

All these questions had only prompted Logan to begin to seriously research the woods. He had chosen to start with the white line. He had wanted to take a stone back to the lab, see what he could test it for, but he had found it unmovable.

In response, Logan had brought the lab (or at least, the chemicals he needed) to the circle. All of them had rolled off the stones like water, leaving no stains or marks to even show proof they had been tested.

So, now, Logan's research was focused on attempting to damage or alter the white stone circle in any way he could. He didn't know what would happen if he succeeded, but so far, it seemed he'd never have to worry about that.

Since so far  _ absolutely nothing _ had worked.

And as such, Logan had resorted to the blunt force methods.

With one last shove under the rock, Logan deemed the knife properly in place. He left it there, pushing himself up while the knife remained held up at a tilted angle.

"I don't think this is going to work." Virgil said, shrinking down to human size and curling into himself, clearly hoping to become a smaller target.

"Me neither." Logan agreed before he jumped on the handle.

**_Clang_ **

Logan tripped over his feet as the handle instantly pushed into the ground, breaking from the blade immediately. He fell over while the knife skittered to the side, landing harmlessly on the ground.

The white stone, of course, wasn't moved at all. There wasn't even a scratch to indicate he had made such an attempt.

Virgil uncurled. "I don't want to say I called it, but..."

"Yeah, yeah." Logan said, sitting back up with an annoyed grunt. "Now I need to get Papa a new knife."

"Please tell me it wasn't his favorite or something."

Logan rolled his eyes. "I'm not that stupid. But Dad buys all the knives and Papa considers everything from him a gift from the Heavens so if I don't properly replace it he'll probably cry."

"Cry?" Virgil asked. "Not yell? Get angry?"

"Papa's not one for violence of any type. If his family isn't the one hurt, he's more likely to be dramatic over it or cry than to get mad."

Virgil nodded. "Fair enough." He looked at the broken knife. "I'm going to assume that's not your last test?"

"Oh, of course not. I can't stop testing until I produce some sort of result outside of wasted materials."

"And how many resources are you going to waste before you get there?"

Logan collected the knife pieces and slipped them into his satchel. "Not sure yet but I don't think I'll ever match Dad's grand exploration of the universe scheme so I'll be fine."

"Grand exploration of the universe scheme?"

"He wanted to travel the entire world and then see the universe." Logan said amusedly. "According to him, it was going wonderfully for a few months until he overused his resources and had to gracefully give up. I think he did a minor exploration of this forest and that was that for the 'exploration' part of the scheme."

"Did he ever try to break the stone lines?"

Logan laughed at this. "I believe he saw them and, thinking they were strange, licked them. Upon finding them to not be poisonous he went on his merry way."

"Your Dad is a very odd person."

"You're just figuring this out?"

"What are you two nerds talking about?" Roman asked, gliding in, still glittering like a rainbow. Logan wasn't sure how long the paint would last, but Roman made it clear he had no plans on purposefully getting rid of it, so it would definitely stick on for a while.

Virgil scoffed. "What's deemed me a nerd?"

"You're watching the human nerd do... something nerdy." Roman said, landed on the rock Logan had just been trying to dethrone. "That makes you a nerd."

"Your logic is terribly flawed, as always, Ro."

"Only a nerd would bring logic into this conversation."

"Just because logic in your conversations is frightfully rare doesn't instantly make it an exotic factor."

Roman huffed. "Why are you such a meanie?"

"Comes with the territory of being a nerd."

Logan raised a hand. "I do not support that interpretation of nerdiness."

"Logan, are you trying to say you are not a meanie?"

"I'm only a meanie to special dragons."

"I like neither the tone of voice nor the look you're giving me while you say that."

"Hey!" Logan said. "I'm the one who painted your scales."

"And yet, you seem to have it out for me."

"Why would you say that?"

"You called me a sunfish, and while I still don't understand what that is, I'm still very insulted by it." Roman responded, turning up his snout.

"You called me a peasant."

"That's because that's what you are."

"Well then..." Logan said, pulling out his notebook and carefully ignoring the knife blade, "I'm afraid you are now a sunfish."

"...What?"

"I've decided to change your species' name from 'Treasure dragons' to 'Sunfish dragons.'"

" _ How dare you. _ "

Virgil chuckled. "Sorry, Ro."

"Can you even do that?"

"All nerds have exclusive rights to change species names at the drop of a hat."

"Then I declare myself a nerd!"

Logan shook his head. "Sorry, I'm afraid becoming a nerd is a long process that requires several levels of professional vetting. First of all, have you ever read a book?"

"N-o."

"I'm afraid you can't be a nerd."

Roman pouted. "I feel biased against."

"It's because you're tiny."

"Virge!"

"I'm just saying."

"Here, tiny dragon, want to be a nerd and  _ not _ read a book?"

"Stop calling me tiny dragon."

"Crawl under the white stone line and I will."

Roman raised an eyebrow. "An odd request. Why?"

Logan shrugged. "Partly for amusement, mostly because I want to see if the stones are stuck on the ground or just stuck to each other."

"There isn't an easier way to do this?"

"Not a more amusing one, no."

Roman sighed dramatically. "I shall never understand why everyone so hates upon the prettiest and the most powerful among them."

"It's because things with egos bigger than their total body mass annoy us."

"Virgil, have you ever considered you hate me simply because you are not me?"

"I haven't, actually."

Logan poked Roman. "You going to crawl under or no?"

"I shall, but only to prove to you I truly am the greatest among us. No silly pebble line can stop me from crawling under it!"

Turns out, the silly pebble line could stop him. Roman got his head wedge in the space between two pebbles, but when forced to pull the rest of himself through, he found the pebbles around him wouldn't so much as budge an inch for him to slip under.

Roman's determination kept him from being deterred, however, until he was stuck.

"Half your neck under doesn't count as slipping under, you know."

Roman glared at Virgil. "I really, really hate you."

"Hey, don't look at me! Logan's the one who told you to do it. And, y'know, you're the one who did it."

"I blame my lack of self-control and willingness to do whatever is suggested more than twice."

"Maybe you should work on that, then." Virgil suggested.

"You and I both know that my impulsiveness is an unalterable quality."

"Well now that impulsiveness has gotten you stuck between the ground and magical unmoving rocks."

Roman turned towards Logan. "I hadn't noticed."

"How you planning to get out?" Logan continued, ignoring the remark.

"With my strength, of course!" Roman said, putting his paws on the rocks next to his head and pushing.

He didn't move.

"Amazing plan." Logan deadpanned.

Roman hit the ground with all his legs before attempting to blow fire at the rocks. He mostly missed, and the rocks he did hit didn't even get scorched.

"I don't like these magic rocks very much."

"In all honesty, I'm surprised this hasn't happened before." Logan commented idly while he made another note in his white rock circle line section. "You've been here for so long, the fact you haven't tried to crawl under them for one reason or another... well, the odds weren't really for that."

"All you people do is insult me."

"You just make it so easy, Ro." Virgil responded.

Roman frowned. "I would torch you but I  _ can't MOVE _ ."

"Need some help with that?" Logan asked.

"No!" Roman responded immediately. "...but if someone would like to help, simply as sacrifice to their god, I would not refuse that."

Virgil blinked before nodding. "Sacrifice to god, huh? Well most of them disappeared a while ago but I think Patton's still around here somewhere."

"Virgil!"

"Look me in the eye and say you would not pick Patton as a god over yourself."

Roman looked at the ground. "Just help me."

"Did I hear the magic word?"

Roman roared. From the way Virgil's face morphed and the general sound of it, Logan got the impression it was a word in dragon, his magic power of dragon speak just hadn't deciphered it.

"Roman! We do  _ not _ say such words!"

Logan decided he didn't want to know it.

"Oh, you've said way worse!"

"Do you want to stay trapped under the rock circle for another few millennia?"

"...no."

"Then say the magic word we both know I was referring to."

"Please?"

"Look how tricky that was."

Roman shook his tiny body in annoyance. "Could you, like, snark after I'm free?"

"Nope."

"Then at least hurry up so I can burn you."

Virgil rolled his eyes before saying to Logan, "You pull, I push? I mean, I could pull but I'd be functionally biting his tail to do that and I'm not sure he'd enjoy that very much."

Logan put his notebook back away. "Sure. Try not to break his face. It's so small the bones can't be that strong."

"Be grateful you are but a mortal and I am a kind god, for otherwise I would  _ royally burn you _ for that comment."

"Uh huh." Logan responded, tightly but carefully gripping Roman's body right before where it was stuck in the rocks. Virgil laid on the ground and moved one foot forward, aligning a toe to push in Roman's face without stabbing it with his nails.

"Ready?"

"No." Roman replied instantly. "But I don't have any better options at this point."

"You really don't."

"Okay." Roman said, taking a breath. "On three. On-"

"Go!" Virgil yelled, pushing as he did so. Logan started pulling as well. There was a slight scratching sound as Roman's scales slide out from underneath the stone line before Roman popped out. Logan cupped his hands automatically, allowing Roman to tumble backwards into his hands.

"Ouch!" Roman said, running his legs in the air for a minute before he turned himself over and got back on his feet.

"We both know that didn't really hurt."

Roman hunched his shoulders. "It hurt spiritually."

"Oof, it looks like some of your rainbow paint got rubbed off." Logan observed, brushing away the little flakes of paint.

" _This is the_ **_greatest_** _pain._ "

"Roman, I can get more pain-"

"I've been damaged forever! Truly hurt! So much pain!" Roman moaned. "My beauty is forever scarred!"

Patton came bounding out of the woods, looking worried. "I heard pain????"

"Padre!!" Roman called out, leaning over the edge of Logan's hands to wave his forelegs at the Sky dragon. "I've been hurt completely and utterly!"

"What happened?"

"The white stones scratched me up." Roman said tearfully.

Patton growled at the stones.

"Uh, I'll stop you there, Pat." Logan said, moving in between him and the stone line as if the white rocks might actually come to harm. "We've tried fire, chemicals, a knife, and blunt force to so much as bruise them and so far nothing has worked. I'd rather you not accidentally crack a tooth or anything."

"So you're worried he might crack a tooth but not that I might get permanently stuck in place forever?" Roman complained.

"He's very distressed about his rainbow paint being damaged." Logan said serenely, patting Roman's head. "Currently he's speaking a lot of pained gibberish."

"Awww!" Patton said, moving forward to allow Logan to plop Roman on Patton's head. "It's okay, Ro! You've still got some paint! And your internal gay will shine through even without any paint!"

"Logan, you are such a trickster." Roman said, though the annoyance in his expression was severely undercut by the fact he had already sunk into Patton's fur.

"I am my father's son."

"Which father?"

Logan considered for a second. "Let's go with both."

"I thought one father just liked to eat what he shouldn't eat and the other liked floofy things and feared tubes?"

"Their greatest tricks are in the fact that they'll establish very simple personalities and then reveal themselves to actually be complex gay messes. Of course, this is another trick, as they aren't really complex, just very hard to understand."

"Complicated people, your Dads." Virgil commented.

"That's the entire trick, Virgil. Be careful not to fall for it."

"You know, your Dad I can see doing this." Roman said. "Remy seems the sort to play that crazy mind game. Papa- uh, Emile- on the other hand, fell off Patton's back when he saw small Darcio."

"My Papa prefers small scale and yet incredibly, and possibly stupidly, complex tricks." Logan responded. "The biggest one he's pulled is changing the date of his birthday every year, and then expecting me to produce a present within the day. It has produced surprising results."

"How does your Dad react?"

"He always has something prepared. I fully believe he's in on it and the game is really just to mess with me." Logan chuckled. "Plus, despite my utter lack of artistic skill, Papa is a sucker for DIY gifts. He still has the clay pot with five holes in it I made last year. I've had several people compliment me on it, saying, 'you were quite the talented toddler.'"

Virgil laughed while Patton asked, "What  _ did _ you make as a toddler?"

"Dirt holes, mostly." Logan shrugged. "I had an odd interest with worms."

"That's alright, Logan!" Roman said cheerily. "We all used to have weird, awkward and not understandable interests when we were young."

Virgil snorted. "Like when Roman was interested in  _ girls. _ "

" _ Virgil we swore to never talk about that time. _ "

Virgil seemed too amused by this line of thought, however. "Oh my Moon I forgot that you use to run about here, complaining about being stuck with all these guy dragons when none of the hotties were around to see you in your godly form-"

"Virge,  _ please _ "

" _ Five feet apart cause we're not gay. _ " Virgil choked out between laughs. "Oh my- that was just  _ precious. _ "

"Ohhhhh, prime denial, I see." Logan said, leaning on a tree. "Papa would probably have a lot to say on that."

" _ If you tell him I swear. _ "

"I won't." Logan smirked. "For now."

Roman turned on Virgil. "You have given him blackmail material!!"

"Oh, well, if we're trading blackmail material-"

"Patton, make him stop!!"

Patton sighed. "Virgil, don't keep handing out Roman's embarrassing secrets."

"But it's just so easy- he has so many!"

Patton raised his eyebrows. "I could name a good few about you as well. Need I remind you of your brief, but memorable, 'light' period?"

Virgil's nostrils flared. "You wouldn't."

"Don't test me, Vee."

Virgil huffed but sat down. "Fine. No more giving away Roman's secrets."

Patton's face brightened in a smile. "Super!"

"That has to have been the most simple and considerate blackmail I have ever seen." Logan said, nodding slightly at Patton. "Well done."

"Aw, it's not blackmail!" Patton said cheerily. "It's just treating them equally."

"It's totally blackmail, Pat." Darcio said, padding in from the side. He had yet to kick his habit of patrolling the forest. "It's an amazing form of blackmail, used for the right purposes, but it is blackmail."

"But mine's all white!"

"Patton, you haven't even  _ seen _ a letter in  _ years. _ "

"I never forget anything for the express purpose of making puns."

"And for blackmail." Logan slyly added.

"And for lovingly but forcefully suggesting to my boyfriends why they should be nice to each other."

"I already saved Roman from a life stuck under rocks!" Virgil protested. "I'm plenty nice to him. I didn't even try to bite his tail to help free him."

"You poked my face with your toe."

"There were no other options."

"I find that extremely doubtful."

"While you all fight about... whatever exactly this fight is about, I'm going to run to the house real quick." Logan said, picking up his satchel. "I'll get more paint for Roman and some more dangerous chemicals. Maybe acid."

"Um, why?" Darcio asked.

"Because the stones seem un-destroyable but I can't assume that, so I must prove it by trying every possibility." Logan said solemnly. "Including the dangerously stupid ones like acid."

"You are truly your parents' child."

"I live to please my ancestors."

"Well, try not to eat anything deadly on your way home." Virgil said as Logan started heading off.

"Or meet any tube-y things." Darcio added.

"I will try my best. See you guys in a few."

When Logan arrived in the alchemy laboratory talking about his need for the 'strongest acids available' Dad had been understandably concerned.

"I know you've had your problems with Roman's existence, Logan, but you can't just burn the poor guy."

"I'm insulted you think I'd do that to what is possibly the last of a species, even if it is a stupid species."

Dad leaned back on the cabinet holding the extra dangerous chemicals. "Then why do you need the acid?"

"You know that white stone circle you licked?"

"Tasted like sour sugar, yeah."

Logan ignored the odd description of taste. "I'm trying to prove it can be damaged. So far, normal chemicals, fire, blunt force, and a knife have all failed to leave any mark or even so much as shift their positions."

"A knife? Did you take one of Papa's?"

Logan pulled the knife pieces out of his bag and threw them on the 'to be fixed table.' "Not that you can prove."

"I think I could if I looked at the handle." Dad matched. He carved hearts into all the handles. Papa said the slight differences in each heart helped him remember what each knife was used for.

"Then don't."

"Fine, but if he notices it's missing, you're going down." Dad replied. "I refuse to be involved in another secret scheme. Seeing as the last one just went  _ beautifully. _ "

"Those were completely different circumstances." Logan said. "I doubt he'll even notice it missing anyhow. He's got plenty, and he just keeps them all jumbled in a single drawer."

"Suuuuuure." Dad said.

"Can I just have my dangerous chemicals?"

"I'm not sure, sweetie. We all know you're most wild of us. You might hurt yourself."

Logan smirked. "Dad. You tried to  _ drink _ acid once."

"It was for science."

"This is also for science. Just of a much less body-damaging nature."

"It wouldn't have hurt me." Dad said, waving his hand dismissively. "I am partially poison resistant."

"That's... not how your poison resistance works."

"Well we don't  _ know _ that thanks to  _ someone _ stopping me from finishing my experiment."

"You're glaring at me but it was Papa who stopped you."

"Well I can't exactly blame the shining star of my life, now can I?"

"That's an insult to me, your son."

Dad shrugged. "I'd say you're also a star, which you are, but your Papa is so bright, so spectacular, so amazingly blinding, that he outshines every star by miles-"

"Dad." Logan interrupted. "Have you ever considered. You. Are. Fucking. Gay."

"I have, actually, many times. And no swearing. It's unbecoming of my son."

"Lest we forget who taught me those swear words?"

"Not purposefully."

"But still."

Dad sighed dramatically. "Fine. I see you don't love me as the amazing Dad I am. To further show what a safe, good, wholesome father I am, I will grant you access to the dangerous acid chemicals."

"This is how you bribe me to love you."

"More insults, more insults." Dad said while he turned and opened up the cabinet of dangerous chemicals. "What colour do you want?"

"Does the colour affect the level of danger?"

"Not really. It's more for the fun of it. Watery acid looks boring. Glittery rainbow acid, on the other hand,"

"I'll take the glittery rainbow acid." Logan said. "If only because I feel like that acid is the one you are most likely to attempt to drink again."

"Just call me out with my name next time, why don'cha."

Logan extended his hand for the vial of shifting colours and glitter. "Sure."

Dad closed the cabinet. "So, you heading straight back to the forest?"

"Nah. Gotta get some paint first." Logan chuckled. "Roman's going to have a fit if I don't fix his slightly damaged rainbow scales."

"Fair enough. I think Papa's using it in the library."

"Again?"

"He's putting a Treasure dragon on the door. Y'know, since he has now seen a real Treasure dragon."

"I knew it would be better if they never met."

"Destiny is a strange thing." Dad said with a smile. "Can't keep anyone apart when it gets involved. No matter how annoying it may turn out."

"The sum of you and Papa's relationship, I see."

"Just go get your paint, nerd."

Logan laughed while he slipped the vial into his satchel and headed from the lab to the house.

He found Papa exactly where Dad said he would be. Logan knocked carefully on the door, the front of which was painted with flower fields and tiny creatures flitting between them, waiting for permission before he gently pushed it open and slipped in.

Papa was sitting in front of the door, various paint vials and cans beside him, smiling broadly. He still had the golden heart on his cheek, now with red splatters to join it.

"Heya Lo-Lo!" He greeted. "What can I help you with?"

"I'm just looking for some paint." Logan replied, glancing at the partially finished Treasure dragon on the other side of the door. The golden outline was already put down, and the face and a few scales already had the red painted in.

"I'd say you found it! What do you need it for?" Papa leaned forward towards Logan. "Got a special project you're working on?"

"You know I can't paint, Papa."

"Yeah, but you know my birthday's coming up!"

Logan frowned. "Can I get an exact day?"

"Nope!"

"You always do this."

Papa's grin was unfaltering. "Yep!"

"Besides," Papa continued, "If you're so awful at painting, why do you want some?”

Logan gestured at the unfinished Treasure dragon on the door. "I painted Roman's scales rainbow a little bit ago, and he got them scrapped up today, so he wants me to redo them. Filling in scales is my one artistic skill."

" _ You mean the Treasure dragon is rainbow? _ "

"Well, in this case, yes."

Papa looked at the wall. "I can still salvage this."

"You know most Treasure dragons aren't rainbow, right?"

"Yeah but now that I know one is I have to use that one as the base for my painting."

"Well I hope you don't mind if I steal some of that paint."

"It's not theft if I give it to you." Papa said happily, pushing some empty vials and filled paint cans at Logan.

Logan shook his head while he sat down and filled up the vials. "How did you and Dad ever end up together? I had to remind him that of the two of us I am  _ definitely _ the slightly less dangerous one. You just gave the stuff to me."

"You know your Dad is possessive of his danger chemicals." Papa responded. "Besides, you know he'd always give it to you."

"The difference stands."

"Your father and I are just made of different stuff, I guess." Papa gave his normal response with a smile.

"Sugar, spice, and everything nice vs snips and snails and puppy dog tails?"

"More like... sugar, spice, and everything nice vs sugar, spice, and a touch of poison." Papa responded with a smile.

"A touch?"

"A touch, maybe a bit more." Papa replied confidently.

"I can list everything he's attempted to digest that is not good for humans in the last week and he'd be dead fifty times over."

"It's not nice to focus on things like that."

"He  _ brags _ about it."

"Only Dad's allowed to bad mouth himself." Papa said, before glaring at his paintbrush. "Until it gets mean. Then I'mma hug him really hard."

"...that is your idea of a punishment for self-deprecation?"

"Well it's not like I can fight who was mean to him when that person  _ is _ him."

Logan pressed his lips together. He could  _ not _ tell Papa about the fact that yesterday he had witnessed Patton chase and successfully tackle Virgil after he made a joke about the forest being empty because all other living things fled from his awful presence.

...Or the fact that afterwards, Darcio had made the offhand comment, "Well, clearly it's not Virgil who's scaring them."

"Then who is?" Patton asked with a smile Logan instantly recognized as forced.

"Well, me clearly."

Darcio, Logan decided, was much too startled when Patton seamlessly moved from squeezing Virgil to pouncing Darcio. They had lived together for centuries. Logan figured out Papa would hug him at any given chance when he was eight.

"You really can't." Logan agreed after a moment.

Papa nodded along while he wiped off his paint on a nearby rag before dipping it into the orange paint. "Got to make the rainbow dragon friend."

Logan put the new paint vials into his satchel. "Be sure to make it vibrant as the literal sun." Logan joked. "Roman will have no less."

Papa seemed to take the joke as a personal challenge. "I will make it  _ vibranter than the sun _ ."

"That isn't a word."

" _ It is now. _ "

"Okay, then." Logan said after a moment, slipping back out the door. "See you in a few hours."

"Bye Lo-Lo!"

When Logan returned to his original spot on the white circle, he found the four dragons had arranged themselves in a circle around one particular stone.

Logan slowed his walk as he approached the circle. "Um. Has the stone attacked someone?"

"We're simply trying to use magic to break the stone circle!" Roman declared valiantly before squinting at the stone as hard as he could.

Patton nodded, turning towards Logan. "Roman thought that since we're magical creatures, if we focused really hard-"

"Patton! You can't break concentration on the stone!"

"Oops! Sorry, Ro!" Patton said, going back to looking at the stone immediately.

Logan looked at Darcio and Virgil, who were also looking at the stone, if much less intensely. "You guys went along with this?"

Darcio shrugged his nubs. "I thought we might as well try. Not going to hurt any."

"Patton begged me." Virgil replied with no more explanation.

"Has it worked yet?"

"Nope!" Patton replied merrily.

"How long have you been doing this for?"

Roman replied, "Since a little bit after you left."

"...I greatly appreciate your guys' attempt, but it's been like half an hour and I have to deduce from the information given that it's not going to work."

"Darnit." Roman said, sitting back from the stone. "If the magic gay energy of a pride of dragons didn't work, what will?"

"You know the term is normally a thunder, right?" Logan asked.

"He knows, he's just too gay to use that term." Virgil responded. "He  _ always _ uses pride."

"If I am not the most gay I can gay every moment of my life, Virge, it's all for nothing!”

Darcio rolled his eyes and turned away from the tiny gay dragon. "You got your fancy new idea, Logan?"

Logan pulled out the sparkly rainbow acid. "I've got a gay disaster in a bottle."

"I would like... to drink that."

"Roman, given this is strong acid, I don't think that would be a good idea."

"But!! Gay!!"

Logan carefully pushed Roman away from the rock he had been glaring at a moment ago. "If my Dad isn't allowed to drink it, you're not allowed to drink it."

"This is unfair." Roman pouted.

"Uh huh." Logan said, pulling his proper safety goggles out of his satchel as he crouched down in front of the rock.

"You look funny with those on." Roman noted helpfully while Logan tried to put them on without improperly nudging off his glasses.

"Unlike my rather haphazard Dad, I will not be burning out my corneas. Or scorching the sides of my face." Logan said before making a shooing motion. "You guys don't have goggles, so get some distance."

"We're ancient creatures of magic and myth with nearly fire proof scales."

"With the exception of exactly half of one of you guys, you don't have scales on your eyes." Logan responded.

"It's okay." Darcio said, slipping underneath Roman and carrying him away from the stone. "Don't want anything bad to happen."

Patton and Virgil backed away as well. Logan nodded at them briefly before he carefully popped the stopper out of the vial. He regretted not having any proper protective gear outside of the gloves he had pulled on on his way there, but it was too late now.

Very, very carefully, Logan poured the sparkling rainbow onto the plain white stone.

And absolutely nothing happened.

Well, that wasn't completely true. The leaves and dirt around the stone shriveled up immediately, and a little hole appeared on both sides of the stone line.

But the stone line itself, and the dirt directly beneath it, remained untouched and uncaring of the acid.

Even as Logan jerked back and yanked off his gloves, a bit of the acid having caught the edge of the heavy leather and started burning a hole through it.

Logan put a hand to his mouth as he watched the hole continue to go through the glove until the back of the glove and the area between the thumb and forefinger were completely gone.

"That... okay, so I've broken one of Papa's knives and destroyed part of my Dad's heavy duty chemical gloves." Logan said slowly, cautiously pushing the gloves away from the rock circle. "I'm going for son of the year award."

"Well, your Dad is apparently a very haphazard man." Patton offered. "He'll probably just be excited you're finally doing destructive science."

"That is an extremely fair point, Pat."

"And the more important part is that you discovered yet another way to not damage the circle." Virgil added.

"I'm starting to think it can't be done." Logan said, kicking the rock and instantly regretting it. "Ow!"

"What did you think was going to happen?" Darcio asked.

"Exactly that." Logan mumbled. "Exactly that."

"And you did it because...?"

"Humanity often makes decisions it knows will end poorly for the sake that our brains work too fast compared to our slow bodies. We regret our actions often too late to change them."

"Well I wasn’t looking for a science poetry answer."

"But, Roman," Virgil said as seriously as he could manage. "Science explains rainbows, which are gay. Poetry is lovely and sappy and therefore your brand of gay. Science poetry is, like, double gay. You are required by gay law to love science poetry."

Roman opened his mouth to reply, paused, closed his mouth, and looked at the ground.

"By this logic... everything... could be and is gay..."

Virgil's eyes widened. " _ What have I done. _ "

"I believe- and I'm not sure this is even possible- you made him and his worldview gayer." Darcio said as Roman's eyes practically actually became rainbow coloured.

"Should I be afraid?" Logan asked.

"You should be  _ gay. _ " Roman replied immediately.

"Fear it is."

"Science is gay and science controls the world and the parts of the world it doesn't control are controlled by magic and if magic isn't gay than I'm not gay-"

Logan nodded, slowly picking up the gloves as he backed away. "I'm just going to... leave you with the monster I accidentally sort of helped create."

"Logan!"

"Goodbye!"

Logan hurried away before he could be caught, past dark, dealing with Roman's epiph-gay .

"Dad!" Logan called out, seeing the man waiting in front of the lab.

"You got my stuff?"

"...Describe all the stuff I should have."

Dad gave Logan an odd look. "The chunky goggles, thick gloves, and danger acid vial you borrowed earlier?"

"I have at least two of those items."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, you see, as it turns out, acid is very acidic. And it likes to destroy things."

"Ye-es."

"Like, for example, thick leather gloves."

"You destroyed my chemical gloves?"

Logan pulled the partially damaged glove, along with the okay one, out of his satchel. "Well, not completely."

Dad laughed. "You're kidding, right?"

Logan flopped the gloves. "Dad, you can't exactly use these as a functional pair anymore."

"Sweetie, please tell me you remember that not only do I have, like, fifteen chemical glove pairs, I have destroyed in much more awful ways. I  _ ate _ a pair on a dare."

Logan looked bewildered. "What?!"

"Oh, yeah, you weren't a person back then." Dad said, looking away in thought. "Crap, has it really been that long?"

"So you're chill I burnt through the glove?" Logan asked, breaking Dad back out of his thoughts.

"What? Oh, of course! You're not a properly christened nerd til you've destroyed something via acid. Speaking of acid destruction, how'd it work on the stones?"

"Oh, amazingly if you wanted to find an element that acid literally just rolls off of."

Dad whistled. "Quite some tough rocks you've got."

"That's just the thing!" Logan said, frustrated. "They look like very ordinary rocks. Of course I can't test that, however, since the perfectly normal looking rocks are impossible to alter or move in any way."

"Ah, buck up, sweetie. I'm sure you'll figure it out." Dad said, patting Logan's shoulder. "For all you know, the answer might simply be magic."

"That's crazy."

Dad tilted down his 'goggles.' "I know you're not really into the whole magic thing, but you've been spending the past few weeks talking to dragons. I've been drinking dangerous substances. You implemented glowing leaves into the village and made a light source that's nicely sustainable. Magic may once more be the answer here."

"But, Dad, if sparkly gay acid didn't break the magic bond, what will?"

"Love."

"That's not cheesy at all."

"Really? Darn. I was going for cheesy."

"You're going to have to try harder, then." Logan returned. "I'm afraid you are being way too subtle."

Dad cleared his throat. "I think  _ true, gay love _ is what you need to break the magical rock bond in the middle of the  _ enchanting _ forest-"

"Adjectives are not inherently cheesy."

"The ones I'm using are.”

Logan rolled his eyes. "Let's eat dinner before you waste all the cheese outside."

"Do you want me to say cheesy things around Papa?"

Logan blinked and considered. "No. But I also don't want to keep dealing with them all by myself."

"Papa will just be cheesy with me."

"Not if you stop being cheesy before we head inside."

"I don't know, sweetie, maybe I want to be cheesy inside."

"You just want to mess with me."

"Only completely."

Luckily, Dad's conquest to spread the cheesy vibe was quickly foiled when Papa immediately assaulted Logan with the question of, "Did you get Roman re-painted?"

Logan frowned and shook his head. "I knew I forgot to do something..."

Papa also frowned. "What? Why didn't you repaint the gay baby?"

Logan sat down heavily in his chair at the table, putting a hand to his heart. "I had to survive."

Dad rolled his eyes. "I'm the drama gay of the family."

"But I'm not being dramatic, Dad, I'm being  _ realistic. _ "

Papa looked vaguely worried while he speared some salad leaves on his fork. "What happened? I thought you and the dragons were on good terms?"

"We are." Logan said. "I just accidentally showed Roman a new world and I had to escape before I was caught in the unholy power I played a part in giving him."

"The unholy power being...?"

"Via words I said, that Virgil interpreted, I unthinkingly made Roman's world gayer."

"...so, to escape the tiny gay dragon, you ran to your gay parents? The gayest creatures in existence?"

"That's technically still up for debate." Logan said automatically. Then he quirked the side of his mouth upwards. "Besides, Roman's revelation had already affected me. I wasn't exactly thinking  _ straight. _ "

"A pun!" Papa said happily. "Rem, he's truly our son!"

"No!" Dad said, throwing a chunk of bread at Papa. The purpose of throwing the bread may have been better expressed if Papa hadn't twisted around in time to catch it in his mouth. "No rhyming Papa!”

"Why not? I don't do it a lot."

"Em, I love you dearly, but  _ why. _ "

Logan tapped his fork on his plate. Papa going into poetry mode seemed ever so slightly forced. This normally meant that Papa had come up with a very good rhyme and needed an excuse to use it.

This could be problematic given the fact that the last time this was done, it ended with him actually getting an alligator for 'see you later, alligator.'

Fun unrelated fact: Neither Dad nor Papa are very good alligator wrestlers, and depending who you ask, there may or may not be an alligator loose in the woods.

The way Papa's grin was growing after Dad's question of 'why' did nothing to soothe Logan's concerns. He pushed his chair backwards, reaching a hand towards a bag by the kitchen door.

"Papa I don't like wherever this is going."

"Oh, Lo-Lo, please," Papa grabbed the bag.

_Please, cheese, leaves,..._ **_bees_**

Logan jerked out of his seat and and towards the door while Dad sighed and rested his head on the table.

"Run, my child, while I am forced to stay back with the light of my life, who will risk death for a  _ rhyme. _ "

Logan quickly got out of the house, not hearing how exactly Papa finished the rhyme, but he did hear the buzzing sound of released and angry bees along with Dad yelling, "I thought you were going to dump cheese on my head!!! Em, the bees don't respond to you an- ouch!"

Logan quickly got into his house and carefully and completely locked the doors and windows before he sat down on his bed.

"...How... did Papa even  _ get _ the bees into the bag?"

And this was the ever important question Logan went to sleep with.


	11. OhhhhhHHHHh Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I do some crazy crap with the story because consistency is for the weak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Bee sting mentions, mass extinction hinted, secrets  
> If I forgot anything just tell me and I'll add it!

"He got bees into a bag?"

Logan nodded sadly.

"Did he... did he kidnap the entire hive?"

"According to an annoyed but not angry Dad, no. He just... got a bunch of bees into his bag." Logan frowned. "Despite the multiple bee stings he was attempting to get down by sucking out the poison- he refused to listen to me when I tried to explain why that would never work- he somehow had the morale to make the joke, 'he's so sweet he probably just got them to come to him and then usher than politely into the bag. Or he used honey. Probably honey.'"

Darcio nodded, concerned. The five of them were sitting around the pond, Roman on Logan's knee while he finished redoing his scales. They had briefly considered actually messing with the white stone circle, but Logan said he had had enough near-death experiences for the week.

Possibly for the year.

"How's Papa doing with the bee stings?" Patton asked.

"He's only got one or two." Logan responded. "No clue how. He feels bad for making Dad feel bad, but Dad has the great flaw of being too gay for Papa to put a firm foot down."

"So the bee matter will never be truly addressed?" Virgil asked in a tone that made it sound like he already had the answer.

"Not really, no."

"That's true love for you." Roman said, moving impatiently in place. "Are you finished."

"Don't rush the gay, Roman." Logan responded, despite having finished five minutes ago. "But if you really want to go off and fly, rainbow not finished-"

"I'll wait, I'll wait!"

Virgil, who had noticed five minutes ago Logan was randomly poking Roman's scales instead of painting them, scoffed but didn't give away the secret. Apparently Virgil randomly scoffed enough that Roman's only reaction was to roll his eyes and say, "The time is worth the wait, Virge, to be as gay as I can possibly gay."

"Uh huh." Virgil murmured in response.

"A shaky little gay." Logan said, while Roman, despite his words to be patient, practically started to dance on his leg. "You can go, I'm done."

Roman flew  ~~ straight ~~ gay off of Logan's leg and flitted about the forest, proudly displaying the bright colours that once more bounced off his scales in perfect equality.

Logan shook his head and started slipping his paint back into his satchel.

"So now what?" Virgil asked lazily. "We're not doing anything with the white stone circle for now, Roman's been properly painted, and you're avoiding home til the bees are cleaned out of the main house."

"Something scientific, I guess." Logan said, lying down on the ground. "I can't exactly be not doing something scientific."

"You can always be scientific if you fake it hard enough." Darcio pointed out. "You made all of science gay yesterday."

"Virgil did, actually. I just watched it happen."

"That just means we can do gay compliment loops and it counts as science!" Roman said excitedly.

"Please, Logan, I beseech you, find some actual science to do." Virgil begged.

"You like gay compliment loops! Admit it!"

"Never!"

"Non-gay science, non-gay science," Logan trailed off, looking around the clearing for something not gay to both a) Keep Virgil sane b) Make sure he didn't die from secondhand gay radiation.

His gaze stopped over the black hole in the pond. The one that, supposedly, lead to the ocean.

Assumptions, assumptions, assumptions. They couldn't be allowed to stand.

Logan turned to Virgil. "You really want to avoid gay compliment loops?"

" _ Yes. _ "

Logan indicated at the hole with his head. "Science is all about proving things. Prove that leads to the ocean."

"And if I drown?"

"I mean this also tests how your smoke form works. Like, how does your breath work under water in smoke form?" Logan looked meaningfully in the direction of flying Roman. "How long will you go looking for the ocean before you return to the compliment loop?"

Virgil narrowed his eyes. "I'll do it."

Darcio coiled and uncoiled briefly, uncomfortable but trusting of Virgil to not drown himself.

Patton, on the other hand, was borderline panicking.

"What if he drowns???"

"Pat, I'll be fine."

"You can't be fine if you  _ drown. _ "

Virgil nuzzled his head in Patton's neck. "It'll be fine, Pat, I promise."

"I thought you were leaving to avoid the gay?" Roman asked teasingly.

"It's fine with Patton because he's cuddly."

"No dying, Vee." Patton said, ignoring the side conversation. The sentence was a mix of a command and worry.

"The gods are too cowardly to kill me."

"I'm confused but you sound very sure that you'll be fine so I accept it."

Virgil kissed Patton's forehead before turning to smoke and heading down into the water. Briefly his smoke stopped at the very surface of the water, swirling around before recollecting into one plume and heading straight for the hole.

Patton instantly began pawing at the ground, waiting anxiously for Virgil to return, while Roman landed on Darcio's head and started quietly, so Patton wouldn't hear, exchanging bets on how long he'd be gone.

Roman was betting on ten minutes, stating that Virgil would push all the odds to avoid the gay compliment circles he truly adored. Darcio said Virgil could make an hour if he so pleased, but worry for Patton's sake would have him back in five minutes.

He was back in two minutes and twenty-three seconds.

Logan was not keeping track to be sure about who was winning the quiet betting fight, and totally only for science reasons.

He emerged still in smoke form, and when he materialized, he was dry and not out of breath at all. This all would have been much more exciting to Logan had Virgil not looked like he himself had just discovered the existence of the sun.

"It doesn't lead to the ocean."

"How did you figure that out so quickly?" Logan asked.

"Because I ran into something that is most definitely not the ocean."

Logan's face took on an intrigued expression. "Do tell."

"I think it'd be better if I showed." Virgil turned to Darcio. "It's only a short way off." He said, looking at the Guardian dragon as if trying to pass an entirely different message.

"What is it?" Logan asked. "No need to secret wink around me."

Darcio side-glanced at Logan before going back to addressing Virgil. "It'll be fine. But to be sure, we can  _ all _ go."

Patton nodded in agreement. "Of course."

Roman, on the other hand, tilted his head and moved to sitting on Logan's. "Um, I'm with the nerd. What's going on?"

"You'll see." Darcio said vaguely before approaching the edge of the pond. "Let's go."

He slithered in and, using his nubs, made his way towards the hole.

Virgil smoked in after him and Patton quickly followed, leaving Roman and Logan to watch the receding dragons.

"Do you want to hide in my satchel so you don't damage your tiny papery wings?"

"I'm insulted." Roman responded. "But yes."

Logan slipped Roman into the satchel, careful to move the paint vials aside before he closed the flap and dived into the pond.

Unlike the rest of the forest, the pond truly felt alive, with the water clear as fish moved around Logan. Glancing around, taking in the surroundings, Logan noted a circle of white stones embedded around the pond just underneath a hidden lip. He opted to ignore it for the time being to head on for the hole.

He hesitated for a mere second before the dark hole, worried about how far Virgil could travel and what it meant for his travel time.

Of course, if he stalled too long and it was a far ways off…

With a metaphorical deep breath, Logan surged forward.

The tunnel was completely dark, with the light behind him from the forest fading almost instantly. Logan wasn't even one hundred percent sure he was moving forward, the water moving around him but not necessarily flowing past him.

Logan was getting ready to give up, if only for the sake of grabbing some glowing leaves, when he caught sight of a light ahead. Desperately pushing forward quicker, Logan wasn't prepared when his hand stopped cutting through water and was suddenly cutting through air, the water disappearing before he knew it.

Logan stumbled through the shift of water-to-air before landing on the ground.

"Ouch." Logan rubbed his back where he had hit it awkwardly, pulling off his satchel to throw it to the side. The clasp came undone as he did so, and Roman crawled out, looking frazzled.

"Couldn't you have made that exit a little smoother?" He asked, stretching out his wings.

Logan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, do tell the pond that."

"What does that mean?"

"It means-" Logan turned towards the section he had fallen out of, stopping mid-sentence when he saw what was there. The pond was there, definitely, and it had ended.

It just had ended in a perfectly vertical and flat section. As in Logan felt he could hang a painting nice and properly on it. He noted that surrounding the rectangle was a line of white stones.

Logan sighed and rubbed his forehead while he stood up. "It means that we've run into even more magic, so you can take it up with that."

Roman glanced over at the frozen water. "I don't think magic cares much if I yell at it."

"That is the problem, yes." Logan bent down to let Roman crawl onto his hand while he looked around.

The cave felt as quiet and dead as the forest above it, though down here it felt more natural. The walls and floors were brown and dull. There were no dripping stalactites hanging from the ceiling or spiders crawling on the walls.

Logan felt as if his every breath could be measured in the empty space.

"Where are the others?" Roman asked. His voice should have carried in the space, but it didn't. It just sort of hung in place, somehow limp.

"Around the bend?" Logan offered, already heading forwards. His mind had moved on from the magic water to the light in the cave. There were no openings for the light to come in, and the stilled water was as dark as it had been when Logan had fallen out of it.

Oddly enough, the lack of a source yet a strong amount of light bouncing around... well, it reminded Logan of the captured sunlight back at his and his parents' house.

Huh.

Turning the corner, he found that his hunch about the other dragons was correct. They were standing awkwardly in front of a handful of tunnels, branching out in different directions, all of them lit up with the unseen light.

Darcio noticed their approach first, despite there being no noise for Logan's footsteps despite the rocky floor and the fact he was making no attempt to be quiet.

"There you guys are." He said lightly. "Sorry we weren't at the entrance, but we were afraid that you fall on us. We did manage to restrain ourselves to this chamber, however."

"Do you guys even know what this place is?" Logan asked while the other dragons turned to face him. He realized now, seeing Patton's fur, that none of them were wet. Thinking about it, neither was he.

"...a little?" Darcio offered. "To be honest, we didn't realize it existed until now."

"Yet you know what it is?"

"We think we know what its general purpose was, yeah."

Logan nodded and moved his hands. "And that general purpose would be...?"

The dragons glanced amongst each other. "Let's be sure before we say anything for certain." Darcio said slowly.

"Why not now?" Logan asked curiously.

Roman spoke up, "Now that I think I see what they're saying... it's nothing bad, Logan, but we just want to be sure first. It's a respect thing."

Logan furrowed his brow. "Okay then." He turned to the branching tunnels. "Split up, or...?"

"No splitting up." Virgil said absolutely. "We're not getting lost in these caves."

"We could still get lost as a group."

"Yeah, but that's better than most of us coming back to the entrance only to find one group missing." Virgil countered Roman.

"Fair."

"Which tunnel?"

"The one farthest to the right."

Logan quirked an eyebrow at Roman's quick answer. "Because?"

"The furthest from going straight, and right because Roman and right both start with R." Roman responded. "Plus, right has to be right, right?"

"Please stop saying 'right' if you're going to abuse it like that." Virgil said.

Roman stuck his tongue out at Virgil while Patton said, "Not left it is."

And so they went not left.

The tunnel was practically identical to the chamber they had come from, lit up relatively evenly throughout. It was only a short walk before the tunnel opened into another chamber. It was practically identical to the one they had come from. There was even a bend indicating another sub-chamber.

Logan rounded it, not completely surprised when he found another rectangular water section, also surrounded in white stones. He only knew it wasn't the one they had come from for the sake he had left his satchel by that one, and there was no satchel here.

"Guys, I'll be right back!" Logan called out before he, not completely thinking his choices through, stepped into the water wall.

It was an odd feeling, going from being perfectly held down by gravity in a quiet, dead place to floating in water that, while dark, somehow felt much more alive than the cave was.

Logan swam forward, finding that once more only after a bit of traveling in darkness he came back to a pond and light. He swam to the surface, popping his head just barely above the surface.

From what he could observe, the forest was the same as the one they had come from, the trees being slightly different colours in slightly different positions. It seemed empty.

Logan was just about to swim back down and tell the other dragons all that he didn't see when there was a rumble from inside the trees and suddenly two other dragons burst out of them.

Logan startled and moved his head more under the water, just keeping his nose out as he watched a lavender-coloured dragon pounce on top of a dragon with scales shifting between sunset colours. The lavender dragon's wings were stretched out and a bit of fire came out their nostrils.

"No! Hurting! The! Random! Humans!"

The sunset dragon wiggled under the lavender dragon's grasp. "I didn't mean it, you know that!"

Logan popped once more beneath the water and started heading back for the hole before he could be spotted. They seem plenty preoccupied, and Logan didn't want their attention both centered on him if they caught sight of him.

He got back to the cave quickly enough, but the four dragons still looked like they were on pins and needles waiting for him.

"What were you doing!?" Virgil asked instantly. "You can't just yell you'll be right back without any further explanation!"

"And yet, he did." Roman said simply, though from his position back on Patton's head he seemed worried as well.

"Guys..." Logan shook his head and smiled. "I saw two more dragons."

"What?!"

Logan gestured at the stilled water. "You just... you swim through this and it takes you to a pond in another forest. And I saw two dragons. A lavender one and a sunset one."

The four dragons glanced amongst each other.

"That's amazing." Darcio said after a moment. "But, how? Not the dragons- it makes sense there'd be more hiding around- but the new forest. I mean, we haven't gone that far. Do you have a lot of forests around your town?"

Logan now frowned and shook his head. "We've just got the one you guys live in. It's huge, of course, but definitely no dragons outside of you guys. There are plenty of forests nearby, of course, but... I don't think they're within the range we've walked."

"Fuck." Virgil said, moving back to the tunnels and glancing down them. He turned back to the dragons. "This has to be what we thought it was!"

"A roundabout way of putting it." Logan said, not wanting to sound mean but... he was petty and curious.

"...Let's check out all the other tunnels first." Darcio said, stopping Virgil's protests with. "I want to be sure. It won't hurt anyone to do that, Vee."

Virgil grumbled something about over-checking but didn't actively voice a complaint. With that, the group continued to wander the caves.

Everything seemed the same, Logan considered, as they wandered about. They had first made a stop by their water wall, allowing Logan to fetch some paint to mark all the places they had been. Every tunnel they went through lead to more ponds, and while finding dragons hanging around those dragons was more a rarity than not, it did happen every once in a while, to the group's utter delight.

The odd travel of walking brief distances only to find themselves in what Logan knew had to be forests much further away was beginning to get weird, and the dragons (Virgil especially) seemed to get more and more uneasy with each practically magical quick-trip they made.

Logan wasn't one hundred percent sure how long they'd been exploring- time seemed senseless here- but he was starting to worry about getting home when they ran across what he had to believe was the last tunnel.

They were in another chamber, every tunnel surrounding it marked with bright rainbow lines Logan had quickly dashed as they walked by. Except for the exact center one, which was colourless.

Roman seemed annoyed by having to go the 'straight' path, but he consented on the fact that Logan would be soon adding gay rainbow colours to the end of it to, hopefully, signal it was their final tunnel to explore.

Logan had suspected they would end up at another frozen wall of water leading to another pond with possibly another few dragons.

He was wrong.

Instead, they came out in another chamber, this one much larger than all the others. Tunnels branched all around the circular chamber, no water walls anywhere to be seen. All the tunnels seemed to lead away, back into ponds, except for one large on across from them that seemed set apart.

The major draw of the room itself, however, was the perfect circle of white stones with scorched ground filling its entire center.

Carefully stepping into the room but remaining outside of the circle, the dragons and Logan observed the circle. Unlike the other stone circles, which seemed mostly circular but not exactly, this one seemed perfectly round. The scorched ground perfectly filled it, not a bit of clean ground within or a bit of burn out.

"Well." Virgil said slowly, observing the otherwise empty cavern. "This is ominous."

"What makes you say that, Virgil?" Logan asked while he leaned forward slightly, running a hand along the top of the perfect white stone circle. He felt as if there was the slightest pressure on his fingers, though what exactly it meant in regards to him he couldn't tell.

Logan let his fingers ever so slightly slip past the stones and touch the burned ground.

Instantly, an odd echoing seemed to break out in the chamber, a cacophony of voices that were both crisp and cold yet blaring. Logan jerked backwards, yanking his hands to his head, the awful sound stopping immediately.

The dragons glanced up from where they had been skirting the edge of the scorched earth.

"Logan, are you okay?" Darcio asked, expression worried. Logan shook his head while he removed his hands from his ears.

"Yes, I'm fine- Didn't you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"The- the noise!" Logan said, gesturing at the circle. "I touched the burned ground, and that noise started."

Darcio slowly shook his own head. "We didn't hear anything."

Logan glanced at the white stones. "A defense mechanism, activated only to those who cross the circle? Requires a test, I suppose." He added the second part more out of habitat than the actual desire to test it.

Roman interpreted it differently, however, and without a word volunteered himself to be the test subject as he hopped halfway over the circle.

Like Logan, he almost immediately recoiled, scratching his paws over his ears before he was out of the circle.

"Uh, yeah, those are definitely not angels singing." Roman said.

"Did you guys think this cave used to be inhabited by angels?"

Roman looked over at Logan as if he had just asked if the Earth was made of cheese. "Of course not. Angels aren't real."

"Until a month or so ago, I would have said the same about dragons."

Virgil stomped his feet impatiently. "This has to be enough evidence for you guys. Can't we just tell him?"

Darcio nodded. "Yes." He turned to Logan. "Unless, of course you'd prefer we not."

"I'm a mortal scientist currently in an underground chamber that defies the laws of time and physics with a circle of burned ground that angrily sings when you touch it. I'd prefer nothing more than an explanation of what's going on."

"Magic." Patton said simply. "It always does come down to magic."

Logan tilted his head. "This answers my question of who lives here, how?"

"Used to live here." Darcio corrected instantly. "The folk of magic are gone now. It's in their respect we didn't tell you earlier. Same reason we don't really talk about why there are so few dragons left."

"Folk of magic...?"

"Well mortals had to have gotten magic in their blood somehow." Virgil said. "So many eons since they've been around and all the magic is diluted down to practically nothing, but still."

Logan blinked. "Um. Are the folk of magic fae people, or...? Because Papa has myth books on those."

"Perhaps." Darcio responded. "I can only assume that's what you call them. We just call them folk of magic. They called themselves that as well."

"All this past tense is starting to sound more and more worrisome."

Darcio frowned and looked away. "Folk of magic lived peacefully- and sometimes intimately- with the humans. When they- humans- started attacking dragons, and the folk of magic tried to defend us, the humans just turned on them too."

"They disappeared completely one day." Patton continued, equally saddened. "One day they were still fleeing with us, the next no one could find any folk of magic anywhere. We can only assume they all met a rather unfortunate end..."

"In all our time in the forest," Roman added, "we've never seen hide nor hair of them."

"And the magic in humans?"

"The folk of magic disappeared. Their offspring did not. They bore many qualities similar to their parents, and many had to hide from mobs, but they were left alive for the most part if only for their human parent or parents." Virgil explained. "As time went on, and they had children and their children had children... well, the traits nearly disappeared."

"And the magic?" Darcio said. "Weakened and lessened until most generations only have a single trait that binds them back to their ancestry."

Logan brushed his midnight blue hair unconsciously. "Like speaking to dragons?"

"Like speaking to dragons." Darcio confirmed.

"So-" Logan stopped and shook his head as if that might clear it before going on, "So this caves used to be inhabited by, uh, folk of magic? Who had mortal children and left behind their magic before, in a time of violent chaos, just vanished?" Logan looked mournfully at the burnt circle. "Leaving behind cryptically burned sections of land?"

"As far as we can tell, yes." Roman said. "It explains the frozen water and the quick trips. The folk of magic were, to their name, quite adapt with magic. Helped that, before they started dating humans, they were the only ones with magic."

"If you don't count dragons as magical." Logan pointed out.

Darcio shrugged. "We're just creatures that the present forgot."

Logan nodded. "Okay. Okay. Okay."

Patton raised his eyebrows. "You good there, Lo?"

"Not especially." Logan responded. "Turns out there's another mythical species I knew nothing about, which would normally be fine if not for the fact I have some of their blood."

"Haven't you heard of the folk of magic before?" Roman asked. "From your Papa's fairytales? It seems like something he'd mention."

"The fae book, which I assume includes information about the folk of magic, is extremely rare. Crazy rare, in Papa's words." Logan explained. "It's the one book in the library I have not read, been read to from, or even touched. It doesn't leave its case."

"Huh."

"Papa's always been much more interested in dragons and other less humanoid creatures anyways." Logan added.

"Fair enough." Roman said before grinning broadly. "He was probably attracted by the beauty and perfection that is  _ me. _ "

"You know the books have general pictures, not exact ones, right...?"

"I am the perfection form of my species and as such would be the drawing in the book."

"I don't think your logic is sound."

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Fight about book drawings in a moment. I want to check out the wide tunnel."

Then, deciding he would no longer wait to check out the wide tunnel, Virgil headed into it. With a glance around each other and care to stay out of the scorched circle, the group followed him in.

Unlike the other tunnels, this one didn't stretch on, empty and existing only to take you somewhere else. From the very edge of the end they entered to curving around the dead-end, the wide tunnel was covered in paintings.

Logan couldn't make out exactly what they were paintings of each time, but some of them were clearly meant to be people, even if oddly elongated and shaped people. In some places it seemed all the drawing was was shapes. In some places it seemed it was something entirely unworldly.

To Logan, the artwork seemed familiar, and yet he knew it couldn't be. The art had the eerie quality of lying completely dead on the wall. Each brushstroke seemed perfectly pressed in place, not marked by someone's hand. Every edge, including curved ones, seemed stiff and uniform. Though they were painted with every colour of the rainbow, they seemed dull and lifeless.

All of it was perfectly done, and that seemed to be the point. The artist not drawing for their sake or another's, but simply for the sake of a perfect artform. There was no heart or soul in the art. It was art and art alone.

Another odd thing about the paintings were the letters written around them. They were carefully put in thick, perfectly straight lines beneath each drawing. They were in a language Logan couldn't decipher, but it was quite plainly clear that they were letters, though foreign.

He turned towards the dragons, wandered slightly further down the tunnel. "Do you guys understand this?"

Darcio turned back to see what Logan was referring to. "Oh, yes. It's the language of the folk of magic."

"Can you read it?"

"This and that." Darcio said. "Exception of Patton, we all know a handful of parts of it, so we manage to translate fairly well between the three of us."

"I've got no ear nor eye for language." Patton said cheerily.

"What do they say?"

Darcio shrugged. "They're mostly just... proverbs of a type, I suppose? Folk of magic proverbs."

"They're quite dull, too." Roman said. He gestured at one beneath a multifaceted cube. "This one, you see? It says, 'A cube is perfect only when eaten as such.' What does that even mean?"

"It's 'created' not 'eaten.'" Virgil corrected with a roll of his eyes.

"I'm sorry we didn't all study the homophones."

"There's a three letter difference, you dunce."

Logan opted to ignore them, speaking once more to Darcio. "Quite the interesting phrase."

"Folk of magic were all about interesting, if by interesting you meant not." Darcio responded. "They weren't heartless or anything by that degree, but most of them had heavy perfection complexes. Their artforms, lifestyles, phrases; everything's based around that."

"Huh." Logan said, continuing down the tunnel. He frowned as he got near the end, where the tunnel curved into a dead-end. The paintings here seemed different from the others. They were drawn just the same, but the edges were beginning to curve and bend into each other.

The subject of the art were more natural things- flowers that seemed to be pushed slightly by a wind, an open field in which butterflies had gently settled on grass blades, water babbling down a rock. They were still drawn perfectly, but the colours seemed to actually be there.

"Something changed?" Logan said, turning slightly to Darcio, who looked as curious as he was.

"So it seems. The words under this one," He indicated the flower picture, "read, 'There is still a breeze.'"

"That's quite an odd thing to note." Logan said.

"What do you mean?" Virgil asked, having broken off the language dispute with Roman. "Don't you ever just wonder if the breeze will ever return after it leaves?"

"It's not my habit to do so, no."

"Guys!" Patton cooed from the end of the tunnel, where he had headed on before them. "I know what changed!"

Darcio chuckled. "And that would be?"

"Love! Our mystery artist fell in love!"

"And what makes you think that?"

"Well I can't read the words, I'm afraid, but the art is quite enough to go by." Patton responded, inclining his head towards the picture across the end of the tunnel.

Logan came over, expecting to find another piece of nature work that Patton just thought was awfully lovely looking. He found, however, nothing of the sort.

Instead, the drawing was of a heart. It was slanted and bumpy edged, with the paint dribbling off almost as if to look as though the heart was bleeding. The letters were twisted to go through the heart, the straight edges practically nonexistence here.

Compared to everything else, it was sloppy. Probably considered very ugly by the people of magic.

And yet Logan, a fair lover of neat art himself, could tell immediately that it was by far the best piece in the tunnel.

It was simple and rather quickly done, but it was the only one that seemed truly and utterly alive. The heart didn't need to look realistic to beat on the wall. The red didn't need to be filled in completely to burn as bright as the sun. The letters didn't need to be clear nor in a language Logan could understand to feel human.

"What does it say?" Logan asked Darcio anyways. Just because they felt human didn't mean he didn't want to actually know them.

"Well, I can't be too sure. The language is very particular about its straight lines." Darcio began. "But I believe on the first end of the heart, it says, 'I was quite ready to die here.' And the second end, the line of words coming out of the heart, read, 'Now I'm going to live.'"

"So." Logan said slowly, resisting the urge to touch the heart (the last thing he had touched in here had screamed at him- who knew what this one would do) as he continued on, "Whatever was living down here fell in love and left...?"

"So it would seem." Darcio agreed.

"It's a true love story!" Patton said happily. "Like the four of us!"

"Patton!"

"Pat!"

"Padre!"

Patton giggled and Logan stepped closer to the heart drawing while the four dragons most likely fell into a fight about who was the loveliest (this was a minor lie. It was never who was the loveliest- everyone always agreed that that was Patton. It was about the second loveliest).

He wasn't going to touch it, he really wasn't. The art just seemed so very familiar. The place he had seen it before was on the very tip of his tongue. If he could just get it-

One of the dragons behind him- he wasn't sure at all which one- moved back slightly and bumped Logan into the wall. He caught himself easily enough with a hand, but in doing so he planted it directly on the center of the heart.

Luckily, this one didn't scream at him.

Instead, he just felt warm, the type of warm many people would describe the feeling of true love being. Logan, a gay whose only current long-term relationship was keeping Tim alive, had wondered why being in love might give one a fever.

But people must get better at describing things, Logan decided. This wasn't a heat like fever. Fluttering butterflies in the stomach and speeding heart didn't seem quite encompassing enough for what he was now feeling.

Maybe that was just want it felt like as an outsider, however, as Logan realized immediately that the feeling was not the feeling of being in love, but more feeling exactly what the artist had been when they drew it and finally left the caverns for their reason to live.

Logan pulled away, less hurriedly than he had the screaming burnt circle, but not slowly either. It felt much too personal to just keep his hand on the heart. He glanced at his hand, knowing it was foolish to think that some of the long-dried paint might have coated it.

As suspected, his hand was clean. Logan still brushed it off on his pant leg as he glanced back at the heart.

He was surprised to find a handprint on the heart, his own he had to assume, glowing a mixture of light colours. It slowly faded away as he watched until it was just the red heart once more.

Logan didn't touch it again, though the image of the fading colours still played through his mind. It really was going to kill him if he didn't put it together. The colours and the art style were just so familiar…

It took a minute, but it still hit Logan like a freight train.

"I've got to go."

The dragons glanced up from what they were doing, Logan already speeding down the tunnel.

"Why?!" Roman called out, the group making to follow him even as he randomly picked a tunnel and started heading down it.

"I need to check something out." Logan replied instantly. It wasn't a complete lie. He did have something he needed to check.

Logan wasn't sure exactly where he lost the dragons, but in his rush to get back to the original pond he did lose them. It took him a few wrong turns before he was able to snatch up his satchel and breach the surface of the pond in his forest.

He made his way through the forest much faster than he had the first time, knowing the woods well enough now to make his way home despite the sun already being halfway set.

When he burst into the house to find Papa and Dad at the table, eating dinner, he diverted around them towards the library. When they started to get up and ask him what was going on, he yelled something about needing to check the dragon book, no worries, go back to your dinner.

They slowly acquiesced to what he said, exchanging odd looks over the table. Not that Logan noticed- he was already in the library.

He had finally slowed down, only so that he could approach the glass cases of the fairytale books without simply slamming into them and shattering them all.

He didn't head for the dragon fairytale book, however. With slight hesitation, he opened the glittering case for the fae book.

Holding it tightly, but not too tight, Logan glanced back out the door, waiting for Papa to suddenly appear and accuse him of messing with the one book he wasn't supposed to even touch. That didn't happen, but it didn't put Logan at ease about the situation either.

Carefully, Logan sat down in Papa's chair, keeping an eye down the hallway as he reverently flipped open the cover.

None of the fairytale books had any table of contents, since that was apparently not a popular thing in whenever these were written. The first pages, instead, were just pictures of small people with wings flying about, dancing over lily pads and such.

From what he saw in the caverns, Logan was instantly suspicious of the accuracy of this book. He doubted the folk of magic were as portrayed.

But it wasn't like he had any better sources, and the dragon book had been pretty much on point…

The first page with writing was just very bold and fancy words spelling out, "The Fae People."

The next two pages afterwards were each, respectively, "Light Fae" and "Dark Fae."

Logan frowned. Not the most promising start ever.

The thin parchment laid the way for the side of the 'light fae' to be written in golden, cursive writing, while the 'dark fae' side was in uniform black letters.

Every page seemed to be comparisons. One statement on each side, a picture to illustrate the point.

Logan quickly made his way through the book, trying to absorb all the information he could as he went.

_ Light fae: Lightly coloured, glowing auras, gifted artists of all forms, lilting voices, gift of the empath _

_ Dark far: Crystalline figures, shifting looks, gifted charm speakers, voice manipulation, gift of the prophet. _

Another glance at the door.

_ Light fae: The fae people of lighter inclinations are often kind, sweet fae. They rarely wish harm upon others of their kind or another. They have many times been described by the mistaken human as light beams with their soft aura and quiet ways. _

_ Dark fae: The fae people of darker inclinations are often more reckless, dangerous fae. They may not wish purposeful harm upon others, but often cause it through their tests and hobbies. With their practically crystal skin, they are often seen by mistaken humans as gems or statues come to life. _

Logan fought the urge to curse. He flipped another page.

_ Light fae are incapable of lying. _

_ Dark fae rarely don't speak in lies. _

This time he did curse. Heaps of proof and yet also a handful of disproofs (disproofs wasn't a word, and Logan knew this perfectly well. He was just currently in a state of mind such that he did not give a flying fae). It was all conflicting. Logan was already personally conflicted enough as it stood.

"Heya, Lo-Lo, you doing alright in there?" Logan jerked his head out of the book, hearing his Papa's footsteps as he called out. He quickly (but carefully, oh so carefully, don't fold the page edges don't fold the page edges) closed the book before rushing to slip it into its case, shutting it just as Papa appeared in the doorway.

Logan turned from the bookshelf and tried not to look like a guilty bastard. "Uh, yeah. I was just checking one of the paragraphs in the dragon book."

"Which one?" Papa inquired curiously.

"Uh, the Treasure dragon one. I was... making sure to check that my point about Treasure dragons being inherently gay wasn't true." Logan lied as easily as he could given his father was fairly empathic. "Roman seemed to think they were."

Logan mildly wondered if stressing to not feel was really suspicious, because Papa was looking at him much odder than he would have liked. It didn't help that Papa was content to only do this, and they were left effectively standing in silence.

Logan could have sworn sweat was going to start forming on his brow when Dad showed up behind Papa.

Seeing the silent standoff, he raised an eyebrow and broke the silence with, "Something wrong, gurls?"

"I don't think so...?" Logan said, glancing between his Dad and his Papa, feeling awkward to say anything.

Dad nodded slightly and turned to Papa. "Em?"

Papa didn't respond for a moment before simply saying, "Well I can't be surprised," taking a second to kiss Dad's cheek, and then heading back towards the kitchen.

Dad turned back towards Logan. "Your Papa's alone with you for one minute and you break him? What did you do?"

"I, I went looking in the dragon book."

Dad looked like he believed that as much as Logan himself did. "Sure you did. I'm going to go make sure Papa's alright."

Logan nodded as Dad turned around and left in the same direction as Papa. He glanced back at the fae book, perfectly slotted into its case.

Grabbing his satchel, Logan hurried back out of the room, heading for his house, and pointedly ignoring the silhouettes from where his parents were talking in the kitchen.


	12. Jump

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, when everything's said and done, all that's left to do is take the leap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Swearing, lies being revealed, a few mental breakdowns that get resolved, mentions of dragons almost eating someone, loneliness, open (but happy) ending

"Someone tell me I'm insane."

"You're insane." Virgil helpfully supplied.

"No, really." Logan said helplessly. "I'm truly insane."

"You're  _ truly _ insane." Virgil said with some feeling.

"Why are we calling you insane?" Darcio asked.

"Because my parents are human." Logan responded.

"Um, yeah, we know that." Darcio replied. "This... this isn't news to you, is it?"

"No. I've just gotten it into my head perhaps they aren't human and honestly that's just  _ crazy _ of course they're  _ human _ not anything else-"

Roman appeared out of the fur on Patton's head. "Not human? What else would they be?"

"Nothing." Logan said firmly. "They're human. They have to be."

"I don't know, Lo, you sound like you're pretty sure they're not human."

"But they can't be!" Logan said exasperatedly. "I mean, I'm their son! Well, I guess that alone doesn't prove anything, I am adopted,  _ fuck _ what if-"

"You're adopted?!" Patton asked excitedly.

"My parents are two gay mortal men, Pat."

"Or so you think." Virgil added.

"So I know!"

"Can you prove it?"

"Well, in a sense, no-"

"Well you seem pretty against assumptions." Virgil matched.

"I'm pretty against the idea my parents aren't human!"

"Well, what do you think they are?" Darcio asked. "There's not many creatures that could be so humanlike."

Logan frowned. "It's impossible. I'm not going to say it."

"Tell us."

"I'm not telling you." Logan responded to the tiny Treasure dragon.

"You should."

"I shouldn't."

"Please?"

"No."

"Aw, come on Lo!" Patton pushed. "We won't make fun of you!"

" _ You _ won't."

Darcio rolled his eyes while Logan glared at Virgil and Roman. "We won't say anything rude, Logan. Just tell us your theory."

Logan looked away before, after a few moments, haltingly saying, "It is possible... in the very smallest of degrees... that they're folk of magic."

Virgil instantly started chuckling. Roman clicked his teeth together before responding, "Yeah, you are insane."

Logan, annoyed, look at Darcio. "You're a dirty liar."

Darcio was unfazed by the comment. "I try not to be."

Patton had started chiding Roman and Virgil, the former of which didn't seem too care much.

"What!? I don't mean to be rude, padre, but the folk of magic are gone." Roman protested. "Zip. Zelch. Zero left. They vanished. Besides, folk of magic were unearthly. Logan's parents are just incredibly gay."

"Says the incredible gay." Logan countered.

"Thank you, Logan. That's my new favorite nickname."

"I'm still going to call you princey, princey."

"That's because you're a grumpy meanie." Roman replied to Virgil, not childish at all.

"Why do you suspect them of being an extinct species, Logan?" Darcio asked, ignoring the other dragons.

Logan threw his hands up in the air. "Because my Papa sometimes glows! And Dad can drink way more poison than even diluted magic should let him! And- and Papa's never let me look in the fae book. And the art in the caverns... I could have sworn it was Papa's. The light, possibly Dad's captured sunlight."

This piqued the group's interest.

"I didn't even think about the light..." Roman murmured while Patton asked,

"The art is your Papa's?"

Logan sighed. "I don't know. Maybe? It... it seemed like it was."

"So, what, the folk of magic were completely wiped out except for your Dads?" Virgil asked.

"No. That would be crazy." Logan assured himself more than anyone else, leaning against a tree. "Like I am. Mad. Insane. Wacko. Seeing pieces of a puzzle that doesn't exist."

"Have you asked them about it yet?"

Logan looked exasperatedly at Virgil. "What?!"

"I feel like that would be the quickest way to determine if they're folk of magic or not." Virgil said nonchalantly.

"Why would they tell me the truth about it?" Logan asked. "I've been going by the apparently too bold assumption they, like everyone else in the village, were just people."

"I think some folk of magic can't lie." Roman offered. "Of course, some rarely don't lie, but that would be a hard way to live while raising a child."

"I guess..." Logan trailed off before going on, "But how do I even put that? What, just walk up to them and ask them if they're really an apparently not extinct magical species who have been lying to me and the village for forever?"

"I mean, you could try that." Roman replied.

"I'd rather not."

"What other choice do you have?" Darcio asked, and Logan was extremely annoyed to admit,

"Not confront them."

The dragons all exchanged glances, which were followed by them all looking at Logan at the exact same time with the exact same expression of  _ really? _

"I don't think you guys approve of that plan."

"We just all expected better of you, Logan." Virgil said sadly. "We're not angry. Just very disappointed."

"My plan wasn't  _ that _ bad."

"You wanted to just ignore the evidence you'd collected that pointed to the possibility that your parents aren't exactly who they say they are and just continue to live with them as if everything's the same."

"Well when you put it that way-"

"Tell me the way you'd put it to not make it sound awful." Virgil challenged.

Logan thought for a minute before returning with, "It requires no awkward confrontations."

"I mean," Virgil considered his answer, "I do like no awkward confrontations."

"It's still a bad plan." Roman said, waving off Virgil.

"A bad plan, maybe." Logan agreed. "But it is a safe plan."

"Since when do you care about the safe plan?"

"Since the alternative is asking my parents if they're folk of magic."

Roman frowned, looking ready to continue, when Darcio broke in, saying, "Okay."

"Okay?" Logan repeated, suspicious.

Darcio nodded. "You don't have to ask them. We can."

"That's even worse!"

"But then  _ you _ won't have to ask them." Darcio pointed out.

"But then they'll know I went to the dragons I've known for a month over them, who I've known my whole life!"

Darcio shrugged with a tiny but sly smile. "Guess you'll have to tell them, then."

"No!"

Virgil, catching on, said, "It's us or you, Logan. As the dragon friends you've known for barely a month, we're not just going to let you leave this be."

Logan crossed his arms and pouted. "You guys are mean."

"We're just tough."

"And interested!" Roman added. "If your Dads are folk of magic, I mean, how cool would that be?"

"Not cool!"

Roman looked at Logan. "Really? Finding out your parents are part of a species thought to all be dead wouldn't be cool?"

"...maybe from a scientific standpoint it could be seen as vaguely interesting."

"Vaguely interesting it is!" Roman declared before running up to Logan and feebly pushing his foot. "Now go! Question your Dads, learn the truth, and conquer!"

"How does conquering play into this?"

"Conquer!!"

Logan looked up from Roman attacking his shoe to glance between the others. "You're really going to make me do this?"

"Yep." Virgil responded.

"You'll be fine, Lo!" Patton assured him. "Your Dads seem really nice. I'm sure that won't change even if they are folk of magic."

With another suffering sigh, Logan careful nudged Roman away from his foot and started to head home. He would have dragged his feet, but he had a sneaking suspicion the dragons at his back would have called him out for it.

He did, however, stop at the edge of the forest to lean against a new tree. His parents' property looked as it had for the last few years. He didn't see either of them, but he was pretty sure Dad was in the lab and Papa was in the library. That's normally where they'd be found.

Of course, Logan considered, he could not ask. Spend the time he was supposed to use confronting them to practice lying confidentially enough to explain to the dragons that, no, his parents were humans. Perfectly abnormal humans.

Logan was fairly sure he could convince himself as well they were just human, too. It wasn't like the inquisitive part of his mind would much rather die than never know the truth. Wasn't like the evidence in the caverns and the awkward silent stare with Papa last night would forever haunt him there was something more going on.

Wasn't like-

Yeah, nope.

He couldn't do it. Logan mentally cursed. There was no way in the universe he could just not ask. Nerves be damned.

With a deep breath, Logan walked onto his Dads' property and into the main house. Going down the main hallway, he heard the laughter of his Papa and Dad coming from the living room. They weren't where they normally were.

Logan partially wanted to laugh. How fucking ironic. Of course today, the day when he was very possibly going to tear away every shred of normality this household had ever barely been able to maintain, would be one of the rare days Papa and Dad weren't doing some form of work in their respective corners of the property.

He stepped into the room. Dad and Papa were sitting across from each other to the side.

Logan thanked what gods there might have been that the laughter didn't just awkwardly die. Instead Papa, smile still wide on his, waved at Logan and said, "Heya, Lo-Lo! I thought you were hanging with the dragons today?"

"I was." Logan said truthfully.

"Then whatcha doing back so early?"

"They sorta... forced me back here."

Papa frowned. "That doesn't sound very nice."

"Oh, it wasn't." Logan agreed. "Thought it may have been fair."

"Not nice but fair?" Papa asked, confused.

"I, uh," Logan searched for the simplest way to put it, "I've been avoiding something. They sorta made me not avoid it."

"Avoiding something?" Dad questioned. "Avoiding something here at home?"

"In a sense."

Papa's frown deepened. "Have we done something wrong?"

"No! No, of course not!"

"Then what are you avoiding?" Dad asked, equally worried as Papa.

_ This is going super _ Logan thought before slowly saying, "Eh, a question."

"A question?"

"I guess the better way to put it is avoiding the answer."

"Avoiding the answer...?" Papa trailed off.

Logan realized the longer he didn't ask the question, the more painful it was going to be for  _ all _ of them. So, in true clear headed, scientific fashion, he said, "Areyouactuallyfolkofmagic?"

Unsurprisingly, his Dads were just even more confused.

"What did you say?" Dad asked.

Logan looked away. "Yesterday, me and the dragons found a cavern, and, uh, it was filled with what looked like captured sunlight and also drawings that look a lot like Papa's and they say folk of magic used to live in there and so um would you happen to have been the folk of magic inhabiting that cavern at one point and would you have maybe been lying to me about being human my whole life?"

The good news: They understood Logan this time.

The bad news: Apparently that was an awful way to put the question because both his parents looked kinda completely devastated.

_ Maybe if I leave right now they'll forget I was ever here _ Logan thought, slightly foolishly. He was quite ready to put that plan into action, maybe just never come home, much better than facing the fallout from this, and was halfway turned around when Papa quickly stopped him with, "Lying to you your whole life?"

He sounded like a kicked puppy. Logan was now considering running from the house.

"Em, you knew this had to be coming eventually."

"I'M AN AWFUL PARENT."

"Honey he's just confused."

_ "I think he hates me. _ "

"I don't hate you!" Logan said panickily, turning back to his parents.

Dad rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Okay, okay. I think we should all take a step back and not focus on how the nerd ended the sentence."

Dad gestured at the last empty armchair. "Logan, sit. Em, honey, do you want a hug?"

Papa flung himself at Dad and instantly made Logan feel one hundred times worse. He really should have let the dragons ask the question. They wouldn't add a bit about a lifetime of lies like an idiot.

Dad put his head on top of Papa's and addressed Logan with, "Sweetie, who or what do you think me and Papa are?"

Logan looked at the floor while he answered, "Um, a dark folk of magic and a light one? Maybe?"

"See, Em? He doesn't even have everything right. He's just really confused, I promise he doesn't hate you."

"I'm already wrong?" Logan asked. _Super. I'm an awful son_ **_AND_** _I'm wrong._

"But he's right about me."

"Yes, but not me, there's lots of confusion, it's okay."

"Not about you...?" Logan said slowly.

"Sweetie, I'm just as human as you are."

"Poison drinking...?"

"Don't start questioning what's always been true." Dad replied. "It's just magic in the blood. I mean, I guess it could be dark folk of magic blood, I don't know."

Logan frowned before latching onto the other half of the sentiment. "Wait, Papa's a folk of magic?!"

"A  _ lying _ folk of magic." Papa murmured into Dad's shirt.

"Please, Papa, I didn't mean it. I just- this is all very overwhelming."

"I mean, technically we never said we were both human." Dad said helpfully. "Parents don't really just randomly confirm that sort of thing."

Logan frowned and sunk deeper into his chair. Dad was exceedingly calm about the situation, given that Papa was still hiding in his shirt. Apparently, he was much more prepared for this conversation.

"Okay." Logan said slowly. It wasn't really okay, he was confused as Hell and Papa was, as stated, still hiding and most definitely sad. "Can I get an explanation of... everything?"

"Sure. You see, in the very beginning, the universe was created. If you haven't noticed, that made multiple people mad, and is often regarded as an awful decision." Remy said.

Logan sighed. "Dad, please?"

Remy rolled his eyes before saying, "Yeah, okay, actual answers. Oh, where to start?"

"When you literally lit up my world."

"Okay, Em, good spot."

Logan waited patiently as Dad actually began with, "I really did want to go exploring the entire universe. And I did. The difference was I didn't stop because I ran out of materials. I did it because something much,  _ much _ more important came up."

"Remmmmmm."

"If we're starting here I'm going to compliment you, honey, that's how this works."

Logan decided this time to not comment on the overwhelming gay.

Dad continued. "I never bumped into dragons. I assume the forest I was exploring- at the time, it was one a good few villages from here- didn't have any. That or I got crazy lucky. Either way, I did find the hole in the pond and decided I had nothing better to do than explore it."

"I ran into him." Papa said quietly. "I had been wandering like usual. I was the only folk of magic left. Life was lonely in the dark, empty caves I never dared to leave. I didn't want to be killed."

"Is... is that what happened to all the others?" Logan asked slowly, knowing full well it had to be a sore spot.

"Not all of them. I-I assume you found the scorched circle?"

Logan nodded.

"It used to be a portal." Papa said melancholily. "To our realm. We'd go between this world and ours. Some of us loved interacting with the humans, some just liked the unique plant life. And the dragons were fun to play with. We didn't have dragons."

"What happened to it?"

Papa sighed. "When humans turned on us, we had to run. Back to our realm. Where there were no humans. But, we knew they could chase us if they found the portal. All you had to do was step in it. Someone... someone had to stay back and destroy it."

"I didn't think it'd be that hard." Papa continued sadly. "I didn't realize that without the portal, the caverns would have no light in them. I didn't realize that the humans would turn us into myths. Didn't realize just how long I'd be stuck there."

"He ran into me when I got to the scorched circle." Dad said. "Or, I ran into him? I threw up some of the captured sunlight and he sort of ran out of one of the tunnels."

"I thought other folk of magic had found a way back to get me." Papa supplied.

"He was... very confused when he saw me instead." Dad said, before recanting, "Actually, he was more terrified. He thought I had come to kill him."

"And you?" Logan asked.

"I wanted to know why the humanoid creature was glowing and screaming." Dad said with a shrug. "I ended up just leaving. He seemed freaked out. Seemed more freaked out when I came back the next day, even though all I was carrying then was a bag of apples."

"You- you met a weird screamy creature and thought to bring it apples?" Logan questioned incredulously.

"I thought he might just be hungry." Dad defended. "I must note back then I had not invented coffee, and was often tired and stupid."

"The apples were sour." Papa added.

"It may not have been apple season."

"But they were still sweet."

"Wait, what?"

"Because they came from you."

"Em, I'm supposed to be complimenting  _ you _ while you curl up against my chest like I'm the super important masculine dude from the stupid folktales."

"But you're already super important to me."

"Emmmm."

"Remmmm."

"Daddddds." Logan added before anything got excessively out of hand. "What happened after Papa ate the sour apples?"

"It took me three days to decide they weren't poisoned." Papa replied. "Mostly because your Dad just kept coming back. Everyday. And he never did anything other than talk about the caverns and comment on my glowing skin and compliment my drawings."

"They were lovely, even if stiff."

"I had been drawing in the dark for centuries. Be impressed I kept the lines straight."

"They're not straight if the person drawing them is gay."

"The point of this," Papa said, trying and failing miserably to sound frustrated with Dad (his face was no longer in Dad's shirt, but his head was still tucked under Dad's, and it sorely ruined the chance of him looking anything but in love), "is that I did eat the apples. And later the berries and bread your Dad kept bringing around."

"I asked him the last time he had eaten after he scarfed down one tin of blueberries." Dad commented idly. "He said it must have been at least a couple hundred years. I didn't really realize that he didn't necessarily need to eat food and I may have gotten extremely worried he wasn't eating enough."

"I didn't realize what all the worry was about. I just thought he really liked bringing food everywhere with him."

"It was worrisome."

"Then, one day, he brought a basket." Papa said with a smile. "With sandwiches and berries and a cute checkered cloth."

Logan couldn't help but give a little snigger and say, "A picnic, Dad? How gay were you?"

"I just thought he should see what the outside world looked like." Dad defended. "And I thought the best way to do that was to lure him with food."

"But in a picnic basket."

"Son, why do you mock me so?"

"Guess."

"Well, the jokes on you, because Papa decided to take me up on my offer." Dad said tauntingly. "And he had fun, too."

"I had forgotten about practically every type of plant life." Papa explained. "I less ate and more explored."

"So we went out again. And again. And again and again to the point I was practically never in the caves." Dad said.

"I didn't want to go somewhere without a human. I thought if I left without one, I might run into a bad one, and, well, I didn't really want that. More so than ever, I didn't want that."

"And then?" Logan prompted.

"One day- gosh I don't even remember the conversation- but one day we fell upon the topic of homes." Dad explained. "And I sort of accidentally invited Papa to come to my house."

"I was so excited." Papa said, grinning. “Living with a human, seeing even more of the outside world- I just knew it would be great!”

"The rest is pretty simple." Dad said with a wave of his hand. "Fell in love, took too long to realize we were in love, got married. Then we lived for several years very very happily until your Papa had the horrible idea to adopt a child."

"As the child in question, I am extremely insulted."

"Well,  _ you _ turned out to be a decent child." Dad replied. "Most tots, on the other hand-"

"Are all very cute and lovely."

"Em, I'm trying to make a point."

"It's a bad point."

Dad rolled his eyes but still kissed Papa's forehead. "You're too sweet for your own good." He turned back to Logan. "And that's about it. We never told you Papa wasn't human because it really wasn't necessary."

"And you assumed I'd never find the caverns?"

"Well, when you were still a tiny nerd, we thought we thought you might become a lazy bum or something." Dad said with a smirk. "But then you had to go and get  _ curious _ and  _ explore _ and I suspected it was downhill from there. When you met the dragons I thought it was basically a guaranty. Looks like I wasn't wrong."

"I thought you might be too busy with the dragons to explore any ponds." Papa confessed. "Last night, when you were in the library... I sensed you felt bad about something and all I could think was you found out. This morning, you said you were going back to the dragons... well, I thought I thought wrong." Papa frowned. "But no. You knew I had lied."

"Please stop saying lied." Logan pleaded. "Dad's right, you never actually  _ said _ you were human. It's okay, Papa, I don't care."

"Still."

"Em, take the boy's apology. Besides, I'm still proud you  _ can _ lie."

Logan glanced between the two of them. "So, the book wasn't wrong? Light folk of magic can't lie?"

"In theory." Dad shrugged. "But Papa's spent so much time in the human world with us, well, he's practically human at this point. Even if he glows a little."

"I still don't like lying, though." Papa spoke up. "It's rude."

Logan once more leaned back in his armchair. "That... explains a lot. Except I still don't know how Dad talked to the dragons? The dragons seemed to think folk of magic could talk with them, but, uh, Dad isn't folk of magic apparently."

Papa looked away. "I may have... cheated."

"Cheated?"

"Well I'm still a little magic!" Papa said defensively. "So maybeeeee I, say, helped your Dad understand what the dragons were saying."

Dad shook his head. "Darn. Here I was thinking I was just really good at picking up languages."

"So... now what?"

Dad glanced around the room as if looking for the question's answer. "What 'now what'?"

Logan gestured at Papa and then out towards the forest. "Well, I mean, I now know my Papa's a folk of magic, there are pond pathways to dozens of other forests, even more dragons to meet and-"

Papa perked his head up. "More dragons?"

Logan nodded. "Out in the other woods. You haven't seen them before?"

Papa shook his head before more excitedly saying, "We should go meet them!"

Excited by the prospect of seeing more dragons, Papa seemed willing to finally let the lying part of Logan's blurted question go. When Logan responded, "Oh, uh, sure." Papa practically bounded out of Dad's hug and towards the door.

This was problematic for Dad, whose one arm was gripped tightly enough on one of Papa's arms to have him dragged up and towards the door as well with a slightly undignified yelp.

Logan sniggered too loudly, and Dad glared at him. "You mock me, nerd, but you are the one who put me here."

Papa, not hearing Dad speaking to Logan, did register the yelp and turned back around startled. "Oh! I'm sorry, Rem!" He said worriedly before kissing Dad's cheek.

Logan smirked. "I guess I  _ am _ the one who put you right in the way of getting a kiss."

"You are insolent."

"I know."

Dad didn't have a chance to respond to that, because Papa had gotten the door open and was once more racing out.

Logan followed them at a slightly more leisurely pace, which meant a quick walk, since Papa was practically anxious to see the new dragons. He only slowed when they got to the stone circle, walking through the silent forest beyond with a touch more reverence.

"White stones are dead space, you know." Papa said looking around. "Most living things can't even enter them. Dragons are strong and old. There are some humans who can't cross, either, but many are tough enough to do so. Humans are quite stubborn, after all."

"You can say that again." Logan agreed with a knowing glance at Dad.

"I'd be offended by your stare, insolent nerd, but I take that as a compliment."

"I'm not surprised."

After passing a handful more trees the group found themselves once more by the pond, the dragons they had already met lounging about it.

Darcio raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to assume you finally asked?"

"Poorly, but yeah."

"The answer?"

"I was half right."

Roman nodded sagely. "They're both exactly half folk of magic."

"Wha- no. Roman why did you think that was even close to the actual answer?"

Roman waved his little arms, frustrated. "Well it's not like just one of them is folk of magic!"

"Actually, that's exactly it." Logan responded with a shake of his head. "Why is  _ that _ the crazy idea?"

"Because Roman only ever has crazy ideas." Virgil responded. "It's a shame, really; he sees everything sane and normal as crazy now, when, really, it's just him."

"Maybe it's just  _ you. _ "

Patton frowned at both of them. "Don't fight." He turned back to Logan and his parents, now with a grin. "Which one's the folk of magic?!"

"One of us drinks poison for fun. The other literal  _ glows _ and is also just a star in his own right, and I'm not even going to get into the planets he outshines-"

"It's Papa." Logan said, stopping Dad before he could go on too long as an absolute gay.

Dad looked every so slightly miffed before agreeing, "Yeah, it's definitely not me."

Patton crouched down to get closer to Papa before pulling back with a somehow even bigger smile. "You do glow!"

Papa was also grinning. "Yep!"

"So, assuming you're not here to yell at us for well-meaningly making you talk to your parents," Darcio started in a tone just as little to cocky for Logan's taste, "what are you doing back here already?"

"Papa really wants to see the other dragons."

Papa nodded eustatically. "They're in the other forests, right?"

"Yep." Virgil responded with a half nod at their pond. "I expect you already kno-"

_ Splash _

"Em!" Dad called out, but it was too late. Papa was already eagerly swimming into the dark hole.

Dad rolled his eyes. "Stupid beautiful impulsive husband with his excitement." He muttered before taking off his jacket ("I spent two years tracking a piece as cool as this one down, you want me to ruin it now?" He said in response to Logan giving him a 'really?' look) and diving in after him.

Logan took a brief moment to shrug at the dragons before following his Dads. From the splashes he heard behind him, the dragons were coming along as well.

Coming along to what, Logan wasn't exactly sure, but he had his answer soon enough.

While he had assumed seeing the dragons meant quite literally popping out of the ponds and observing them like he had done, Papa had a different definition.

As in he was going to say hi to  _ every single dragon. _

Of course, Logan thought on their fifth dragon infested forest, watching Papa glow even brighter than he normally did at seeing all the new dragons was nice.

And seeing Dad casually lean on Papa's shoulder and brag about how he tricked the folk of magic to stay on Earth (a story that changed at each forest, one everyone knew was false, and one no one would call out) was very gay.

And watching Patton leap around when he met the other dragons, or Virgil smoke around them 100% to be a showoff, or Darcio slithering under a dragon before turning into his usual size for no reason other than he could, or Roman glide around to catch every beam of light of his scales and shine rainbows on the other dragons was all very amusing.

The fact that every time Logan picked a tree to lean on and simply observe he was forcefully pulled into the conversation by one being or another was only slightly annoying.

What  _ was _ annoying was that two dragons had tried to eat him.

But that was a problem for a different day, or month, Logan decided, because in his quest to see  _ all da dragons _ Papa had run into the center chamber. He had stopped immediately in front of the burnt circle, looking at it like it was holy ground. For him, it very well might have been.

"I wouldn't touch it if I were you." Roman warned, skirting the edges while glaring at the white stones. "It has a tendency to scream."

"It's Destroyed Perfection." Papa said sadly, kneeling down before the circle, fingers resting on top of the rocks.

"What?"

"Destroyed Perfection." Papa repeated. "It's what we- it's what folk of magic call it. The magic that once lived here in the sigil was powerful. When it was destroyed it didn't leave. It just remained to protect its wrecked hallowed ground."

"Is it destroyed forever?" Patton asked quietly.

"Well, I suppose-" Papa shook his head. "Nevermind."

"What is it?" Dad pushed.

"Nothing; it's nothing."

"Em, it's fine. What is it?"

Papa rolled his shoulders and gestured at the circle. "I, well, I do remember the sigil pattern, and- in theory- if I traced it out it would reappear..."

"You could get back to the world of the folk of magic?" Darcio picked up instantly.

"Well, I mean, I doubt any humans would find it now..."

"You mean other than us?" Logan and Dad said, incidentally, at the same time.

"You guys are so in sync." Patton whispered admiringly while Logan and Dad glanced confused at each other.

"Uh huh." Logan replied before turning back to Papa. "But, yeah, no one's going to find it. I mean, the only reason you destroyed it was to keep humans out, right?"

Papa nodded.

"Then, well, there's no reason for it to be destroyed anymore." Logan continued. "You could... well, you could go home."

"This is home." Papa replied instantly, fiercer than Logan had expected. He held his hands up in peace.

"Go to your old home. Your place of upbringing. Whatever you want to call it."

"I mean... if folk of magic live as long as they seem to, you must still have friends back there, right? Or family?"

"You guys are my family." Papa responded once more instantly, but there was more melancholy in his voice.

"We'll still be here, Em." Dad assured him. "We're not going to leave."

Papa bit his lip, holding out a hand. The tip of the pointer finger began to glow brighter than the others, shining a bright white instead of the pastel sunset colours that were currently in Papa's hair.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Dad added in a whisper. "We'll support whichever option you choose."

Papa paused for a second at Dad's words before shaking his head. "No, I... I want to see them."

Dad supportively patted his shoulder. "Well go on, then."

Papa hesitated a second more before leaning forward. If the circle screamed at him, he seemed unfazed by it, tracing his finger across it as fluidly as if he were drawing another star. As he went, the colour of the light changed, and the lines he put down wobbled and moved in place. It continued to do so, even as Papa leaned back and brushed his hands on his pants, as if he had actual paint on them.

For a second, nothing happened, other than the lines continued to dance and shift, until suddenly they didn't. With no seeming reason, the lines stopped in place, forming a shape that looked as if it were meant to be familiar.

Then, once more suddenly, the lines sunk downwards into the earth, and the unmarked ground in the circle around it did so as well, until all that was left within the circle was a gaping pit. A bright yet faraway light shone from the depths of it.

Papa stepped back slightly, taking a breath as he stared down into the pit Logan knew he must have used hundreds of times so long ago.

Ever so gently, worried to spook him, Logan placed his hand on Papa's shoulder. "Ready to go?"

Papa placed his hand on top of Logan's and looked at him, face unreadable, before he hurriedly turned to Dad and grabbed his hand.

"Come with me?" He asked, slightly desperate, but unwilling to force either of them to say yes.

Dad didn't even think, taking half a step forward to kiss Papa before responding, "If you want us to, of course."

"Same here." Logan replied. "But, uh, less kissing."

Papa laughed a bit and then repaid Logan's humor by kissing his forehead. Logan acted annoyed but didn't really have the heart to go the full mile and wipe his forehead.

Papa shifted his grasp on Logan's hand so now it was the three of them, in a line, holding hands. Cheesy as all of the moon, yeah, Logan knew, but he wasn't going to do anything about it outside of glare at Virgil when he sniggered.

Papa looked at the dragons. "Would you like to come as well?" He asked politely, though it was clear he'd be overjoyed if they came too.

Virgil shrugged. "I've got nothing better to do."

"Of course." Darcio responded.

Patton nodded excitedly and Roman commented he wasn't leaving his spot on Patton's head so looks like he'd be coming too.

"Well then." Papa said, nodding as if to reassure himself that, yes, they were doing this, all together. "On three?"

"There's not really a need for a countdown, you know." Logan pointed out.

"It gives the situation a touch more drama." Dad said. "One."

Logan sighed but, after checking that the dragons looked ready to go, said, "Two."

Papa took another deep breath. "Three."

And they jumped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all have enjoyed this wild ride!  
> I'm going to be writing a Remile centric prequel for this, so keep an eye out for that if you care.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr: https://sleepless-in-starbucks.tumblr.com/  
> The wonderful Hawthorn's tumblr: https://hawthornshadow.tumblr.com/


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